Pimentel: Looking at numbers, good luck to impeachment complaint

Good luck.

This was the message of Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III to Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano, who earlier filed an impeachment complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte.

In an interview with reporters, Pimentel also appealed to the public to allow the House of Representatives to rule on Alejano's complaint.

"Let the House conduct its own process. Looking at the numbers, good luck to the complainants," said the senator.

The impeachment complaint filed by Alejano will have to be declared sufficient in form and substance by a House committee, before it is sent to the plenary, where a one-third vote from the 292-member chamber  is needed for it to advance to the Senate.

The House of Representatives is dominated by a "supermajority" composed of lawmakers from Duterte's PDP-Laban and other political parties.

"They filed the complaint after the break so they achieved their objective to create news. So I don’t think they really care whether or not they succeed in their impeachment," Pimentel said.

Pimentel expressed fear that those behind the impeachment attempt would most likely ignore the "overwhelming mandate" given by Filipinos to Duterte.

Amid the impeachment complaint against the President, Pimentel urged the public to continue throwing their support behind Duterte.

"Let’s stop nitpicking. Stop putting the President’s every single word under a microscope and hoping to find some signs of inconsistencies, misalignment, inappropriateness, in their attempts to change the results of the elections," said the lawmaker.

Pimentel said it seemed the Liberal Party, the political group of Duterte's predecessor former President Benigno Aquino III, have come together and are "collaborating... to cause delays, or throw practical obstacles."

"There’s no problem with that as long as they’re within our rules. Anyway, this [impeachment complaint] is about numbers. So we, in the majority, can deal with those kinds of things within the rules," Pimentel added. — MDM, GMA News