President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is not influencing the House of Representatives to ditch impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte, Malacañang said.
In a press briefing on Friday, Jan. 24, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin refuted claims by the Makabayan party-list bloc in the House.
“We cannot dictate to the lower house. It is co-equal — belongs to a co-equal branch of government. All we were saying, the president was saying to the lower house, this is my position, but he is not blocking, he is not blocking,” said Bersamin.
He said the president was merely expressing his views on impeachment when asked about it.
“You know that, under the Constitution, the impeachment must emanate from the lower house, okay? Now, if the president has made the statement at all, about that process, it is only an opinion that he stated because he probably — the thinking of the president — is that might be distracting us from our agenda or our move forward,” Bersamin said.
Duterte is facing three impeachment complaints.
Marcos previously said that impeachment proceedings will distract the nation from more pressing concerns and issues.
