2nd impeachment complaint vs Marcos filed in House

The Makabayan coalition on Monday filed an impeachment complaint against President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. over alleged betrayal of public trust due to corruption involving flood control projects, among others.

The complaint was received by House Secretary General Cheloy Garafil.

Last week, complainants led by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan attempted to file the impeachment complaint but the Office of the Secretary General refused to accept it as Garafil was in Taiwan to receive an award and that no one else was authorized to accept the complaint.

Bayan said the impeachment complaint was based on the grounds of betrayal of public trust. It also accused Marcos of committing three impeachable acts including the adoption of the Baselined-Balanced-Managed (BBM) Parametric Formula in allocating infrastructure projects that allegedly led to "ghost", substandard, and overpriced flood management projects.

Marcos was likewise accused of "abusing" his authority to use unprogrammed appropriations, and benefitting from the kickback scheme in the flood control mess.

Not so fast

House Deputy Minority Leader Antonio Tinio said that Garafil did not commit to transmitting their complaint to the Speaker’s office immediately.

Under the House rules, the House Secretary General should immediately transmit the impeachment complaint to the Office of the House Speaker.

The House Speaker is then mandated to calendar the impeachment complaint in the Order of Business for plenary action within 10 session days upon receipt of the complaint.

“She said by tradition, an impeachment complaint received by the Secretary General is not forwarded to the Speaker’s office within the same day. This [reason] does not make sense,” Tinio told reporters.

“The House rules state there should be immediate referral [by the Sec Gen] to the Speaker, and the Speaker has 10 session days to refer, to include the complaint or complaints in the Order of Business. May sapat na panahon para pagsamahin ang impeachment complaints para magkaroon ng isang initiation of proceedings lamang,” he said.

(There is enough time to consolidate these impeachment complaints to have one initiation of proceedings.)

Tinio was referring to the Constitutional provision that only allows the initiation of one impeachment complaint per impeachable official every year.

“In other words, walang anumang dahilan para sabihin ng House na may nauna na,” he added.

(There is no reason for the House to say our complaint cannot be included because somebody beat us in terms of filing first.)

The first impeachment complaint filed by De Jesus was already transmitted by Garafil’s office to the Speaker’s office last January 21.

De Jesus filed the impeachment complaint last January 19.

Later in the day, Tinio told reporters that Garafil already forwarded their impeachment complaint against the President to the office of Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy III.

“We were informed by the Speaker himself this afternoon that he has received our complaint from the Secretary General and that he has asked that it be included in the Order of Business,” Tinio said.

Ahead of Tinio’s announcement, Dy opened the session by delivering a speech which underscored the importance of exacting accountability among public officials.

Co, for her part, said their complaint fully deserves consideration because it is compliant with the requirements of the House rules in terms of procedure and merit.

“This second impeachment was filed to the letter. We followed the rules, and this is a verified impeachment complaint [with endorsers from the ranks of the House]. Its immediate referral is in order,” Co, a lawyer, stressed.

“And to summarize, this second complaint contains allegations not included in the first one. For one, the testimony of former Department of Public Works and Highways Roberto Bernardo that the President received P8 billion in kickback. That it is very important for our complaint to be included,” she added.

Bernardo is one of the state witnesses in the government’s investigation on the flood control controversy —AOL, GMA Integrated News