January 4, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — A lawyer for proponents of the third impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte is open to having discussions with the legal team of two other petitioners, as proposed by ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro.
“Personally, we don’t know each other, but since we are bound by a common cause, why not?” Amando Virgilio Ligutan said in an interview with ABS-CBN, when asked about Castro’s proposal.
“We are willing to meet with them. We filed a separate impeachment complaint, but we are bound by the same goal,” he added.
Ligutan represents a group of lawyers and priests in the third impeachment complaint filed against Duterte on Dec. 19 last year.
The two previous complaints were filed one after the other by groups led by the Akbayan and the Makabayan groups in the House of Representatives.
Castro earlier said the three groups should consider sitting together for discussions on possible consolidation of the impeachment complaints.
The filers of the third impeachment complaint include Fr. Antonio Labiao of the Diocese of Novaliches, Fr. Joel Saballa also of the Diocese of Novaliches; Carmelite priests Rico Ponce Dionisio Ramos and Esmeraldo Reforeal; Fr. Daniel Pilario of the Congregation of the Mission and Simon Serrano, founder of Stop Corruption Philippines, among others.
Camarines Sur Rep. Gabriel Bordado and farmer’s party-list AAMBIS-OWA Rep. Lex Anthony Cris Colada endorsed the third complaint.
In seeking Duterte’s impeachment, the group said Duterte committed “culpable violation of the constitution; bribery; graft and corruption; plunder; malversation and technical malversation and betrayal of public trust.”
The 1987 Constitution provides that the House Speaker has a maximum of 10 session days to include an impeachment complaint in the order of business in the plenary and a maximum of three session days to refer it to the House justice committee.
“We will push to have one effort so that we can also push the Marcos government and the House leadership to continue the impeachment,” Castro said.
She said a recent survey showed that at least half of the members of the House of Representatives were supportive of the impeachment moves against Duterte.
House secretary general Reginald Velasco earlier said their legal team was still verifying the three impeachment complaints before deciding to transmit them to the Office of the Speaker.
Velasco said some members of the House were requesting for an extension because they were considering filing another impeachment complaint, the fourth.
“They did not say yet how many will endorse it,” he said.
Velasco also said that 10 to 12 congressmen, belonging to both the majority and the minority bloc, were planning to endorse one of the three impeachment complaints already filed against Duterte.
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