Leni ready to face new impeach complaints

Vice President Leni Robredo is unfazed by threats of new impeachment complaints to be filed against her next month.

“We’re ready to face these (complaints). We’re not doing anything wrong. We’re ready for these and these are part of the democratic process,” Robredo told reporters in Malabon City after a visit yesterday.

Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta (PBA) party-list Rep. Jericho Nograles earlier said more impeachment raps may be lodged against Robredo before the House of Representatives in August.

Two impeachment complaints have been filed against Robredo before the House but were not endorsed by any of the lawmakers.

The two complaints were filed by Marcos loyalist Oliver Lozano and a group of President Duterte’s supporters led by lawyers Trixie Angeles and Bruce Rivera and professor Antonio Contreras.

Robredo, the interim chair of the Liberal Party, said she is unsure if she would get support from a majority of the House now dominated by Duterte’s allies.

“It’s hard for me to answer that,” Robredo said when asked about it since she served as congresswoman of Camarines Sur prior to her election as Vice President.

“Impeachment is a political process. But I hope it would be based on the grounds of impeachment,” she stressed.

Asked if the impeachment threats and the election protest filed against her by former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. affect her work, Robredo said “it’s not something that would stop you from doing what you’re supposed to do.”

“To me, once it’s there, I have to face it,” she said.

There are 25 members of the LP in the House, but 20 of them are part of the socalled super majority in Congress.

Protest woes

Meanwhile, Robredo’s lawyers said the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), must resolve first the issue raised by former senator Marcos on the legitimacy and integrity of the automated election system (AES) before proceeding with the recount.

In a compliance and comment filed before PET, Romulo Macalintal and Maria Bernadette Sardillo asked the PET to first resolve Marcos’ question on the AES before taking custody of the ballot boxes and their contents, other election documents and paraphernalia, and data storage from the provinces in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Robredo’s lawyers stressed these areas are not even included in Marcos’ three pilot provinces – Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental.

Macalintal said if Marcos’ claim of system-wide vulnerability were true, then its impact would extend to all 92,509 clustered precincts that functioned in the 2016 national and local elections.

“Marcos’ claim of system-wide vulnerability would have a sweeping effect on a national scale, particularly on the legitimacy of 18,082 elected officials who won under the same automated elections – the entire House of Representatives, half of the Senate, the local government officials and the top two posts in the country. Certainly, this matter takes precedence,” he said.

“If Mr. Marcos is questioning the integrity of the automated elections, he is also questioning the victory of Mr. Duterte, the senators and other local officials,” Macalintal argued.

Earlier, Macalintal accused Marcos of fishing for evidence after he insisted on reserving his right to change his three pilot provinces.