MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte cannot be impeached for releasing the list of local politicians running in the 2019 midterm elections who were allegedly involved in illegal drug trade, according to the Malacañang.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said Akbayan representative Tom Villarin might be unfamiliar with the impeachment process that he said that Duterte can be sacked for releasing the “narco-list.”
“The statement of Akbayan representative Tomasito Villarin that President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s action of releasing the list of narco-politicians ‘could constitute an impeachable offense for culpable violation of the Constitution’ has no legal and factual basis,” he stressed.
Panelo added: “In other words, it’s pure nonsense. The opposition party-list congressman is quick to respond to an issue of unfamiliar terrain to a non-lawyer like him.”
The Palace official also clarified that what Duterte did in exposing the names of “narco politicians” was like “releasing the names of criminal suspects” as they were already charged before the Office of the Ombudsman.
“The release of their names is nothing more than a release of the names of criminal suspects. Such act cannot be considered a legal transgression, and even more so, an impeachable offense,” Panelo said.
He added: “It is paramount that the individual liberties of our citizens should be harmonized with the entire Filipino people’s right to the preservation and protection of their welfare, as well as their right to information on matters of national significance.”
Panelo further said the President’s failure to protect citizens by not releasing the “narco list” is the one that constitutes an impeachable offense.
“It is the failure of the President to perform his constitutional duty of serving and protecting the people that makes him liable to impeachment for such omission is culpable violation of the Constitution and a betrayal of the public trust,” he said./PN
