‘NO GROUNDS YET’: Iloilo lawmaker doubts planned Marcos impeachment

By Mariela Angella Oladive

Iloilo 3rd District Representative Lorenz Defensor, one of the prosecutors in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, expressed skepticism over a planned impeachment complaint against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., saying there appears to be no clear constitutional basis for the case.

Defensor emphasized that impeachment should be grounded in actual violations of the Constitution and should not be used as a tool for retaliation.

He said the substance of any complaint must be carefully examined to ensure it is legally valid.

“We must carefully examine the substance of the impeachment complaint because it must be grounded in constitutional violations. Given everything that is happening now, we should be cautious about impeachment filings that may be motivated by revenge,” he said in an interview on Sunday, Oct. 12.

“It is important to focus on whether the president has committed a constitutional offense, and it is not just a simple crime,” he added.

At present, he noted that he had not seen any impeachable offense against the president, nor any clear violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust, or high crimes.

“We will carefully observe if the impeachment complaint is actually filed, and that will be our basis to assess whether there are sufficient grounds for it to proceed,” Defensor said.

The remarks came after Cavite 4th District Representative Elpidio “Kiko” Barzaga Jr. announced on TikTok on Thursday, Oct. 9, his intention to file an impeachment complaint, citing alleged “betrayal of public trust” related to flood control anomalies.

In a video from inside the House of Representatives session hall, Barzaga showed a copy of the planned complaint and said, “I have a surprise for you… the Marcos impeachment complaint. On the grounds of betrayal of public trust, I am filing an impeachment for President Marcos, and hopefully Congress will remove him soon, so we can start investigating those involved in the flood control anomalies.”

Meanwhile, House Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy III said on Friday that the planned impeachment complaint was unlikely to advance, noting that he had neither received a copy of it nor been briefed on its details.

He added that, at present, the House had many issues to address, emphasizing that the government’s priority should be tackling the country’s pressing problems, particularly the needs of farmers.

When asked about the prospects of the impeachment, Dy indicated that it would likely fail, explaining that no complaint had been formally filed and that he had not heard of any active plans to file one against the president.