(Eagle News) – Opposiiton senator Leila De Lima said that President Rodrigo Duterte could be impeached for allowing Chinese fishing vessels to enter the Philippines exclusive economic zone.
De Lima’s reaction was in support of the contention made by Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio that what President Duterte did in allowing foreign vessels to fish in the country’s EEZ was unconstitutional.
In her statement, De Lima claimed that the President had “committed three of the six ground of impeachment.”
-3 grounds of impeachment committed, says De Lima-
“By allowing the Chinese to fish in the Philippines’ EEZ, Duterte has committed three of the six grounds for impeachment: culpable violation of the Constitution, treason, and betrayal of public trust,” she said.
“If it is eventually proven that his motivation for this grossly unconstitutional act is his acceptance of a generous bribe from China, whether in the form of campaign donations or a share in Chinese business interests in the Philippines, then that would also include bribery and graft and corruption, or five out of the six grounds for impeachment,” De Lima, one of the most vocal critics of Duterte, said in her statement.
But the lady senator recognizes that the current Congress was not expected to hold Duterte to account for these impeachable offenses anytime soon.”
“What are the people to do when the President and a rubber-stamp Congress have not only failed to secure the national interest but have actively given away or sold the Filipinos’ sovereign rights to China in exchange for 30 pieces of silver?,” De Lima said.
“No other president has probably committed more impeachable offenses than Duterte. The mechanism for a remedy is there, but it has been ill-suited for a political culture that values patronage and power over and above the rule of law, sovereignty, and national pride,” she said.
-Hope for SC ruling on fisherfolk’s petition –
De Lima said that the only hope was the Supreme Court ruling in favor of a petition filed by the Kalayaan Palawan Farmers and Fisherfolk Association against the Duterte Administration “to enforce the Philippines’ sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea under UNCLOS, the Philippine Fisheries Code, and the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the case of Philippines v. China.”
The petition was filed last April 16.
“Insofar as challenging Duterte’s treason and Congress’s silence is concerned, the ball now appears to be with the third branch of our government, the Supreme Court,” she said.
Reacting to Duterte critics’ claims that the President could be impeached because of his actions on China, Malacanang said that they are free to file any impeachment complaint.
“Salita lang ‘yun ng ano…kung naniniwala sila na may ginagawang impeachable offense, eh ‘di mag file sila [ng impeachment complaint], but you cannot stop the President from doing steps which, to his mind, is the correct way to obey the Constitution and to protect and serve the Filipino people,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a press briefing.
