Duterte’s ouster for Robredo. Alejano denies

Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano on Thursday denied filing the supplemental impeachment complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte in a bid to replace him with Vice President Leni Robredo.

In a press conference after filing his supplemental impeachment complaint, Alejano said he sought the President’s ouster for his alleged impeachable offenses, not mindful of the possibility of Robredo taking over as the country’s president.

“Hindi natin ineexpect na suportahan niya ito. Tumitingin kami sa violation ng Pangulo, hindi kami tumitingin sa vice president,” Alejano said.

Alejano filed the impeachment complaints against Duterte for betrayal of public trust and culpable violations of the Constitution over his alleged P2.2 billion hidden wealth, his administration’s war on drugs, the Davao Death Squad when he was mayor, as well as the President’s alleged inaction over the country’s maritime rights over the West Philippine Sea and Benham Rise.(We’re not expecting that the vice president will support this. We are looking at the violations of the president. We’re not looking at who’s next, the vice president.)

READ: Solon files impeach rap vs Duterte over West PH Sea, Benham Rise | 1st impeachment complaint filed vs Duterte for killings, graft

Vice President Robredo earlier said it would be unethical of her to support an impeachment move against Duterte, whom she criticized for the administration’s bloody war on drugs.

READ: Impeachment will be very divisive, says Robredo

As to Senate President Koko Pimentel’s statement that Alejano “woke up a sleeping giant” in Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, who is mulling an impeachment complaint against Robredo, Alejano said this only diverts the real issue at hand—the President’s alleged impeachable offenses.

Pimentel should instead blame the government’s policies that violate the Constitution, Alejano said.

READ: Leni facing ouster threat for waking ‘sleeping giant’ —Pimentel 

“Alam nating maraming pulitika sa ating bansa, but I believe unang-una rito ang pagmamahalan sa ating bansa. ‘Yun ang dapat tingnan natin (We know there is a lot of politicking in the country. But I believe first and foremost is the love for the country. That’s what we should be looking at),” Alejano said.

“Ang sisihin niya po ‘yung mga polisiya na ‘di sang-ayon sa Saligang Batas (What he (Pimentel) should blame are the policies that are not aligned with the Constitution),” he added.

READ: Speaker calls Robredo ‘shameless,’ to pursue impeachment

Alvarez mulled endorsing an impeachment complaint for betrayal of public trust against Robredo following her video to a United Nations body criticizing the administration’s narcotics crackdown and putting the country in a bad light before the international community.

In her video, Robredo also exposed the alleged “palit-ulo” (trading heads) scheme where poor families were rounded up by the police who would then demand that relatives would be taken in exchange for the accused drug personalities if the latter were missing.

The first impeachment complaint was endorsed for the Speaker’s support by Marcos loyalists Oliver Lozano and Melchor Chavez. Another group of lawyers are mulling the same move