THE Magdalo party-list group on Thursday filed a supplemental impeachment complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte for his alleged failure to assert the country’s exclusive sovereign rights to Benham Rise.
The group’s representative in Congress, Gary Alejano, said Duterte, through his actions and pronouncements, had continued to ignore the country’s national interests and refused to act on urgent security matters brought on by China’s activities in the West Philippine Sea and Benham Rise.
He said that could be grounds for impeachment.
“Apparently it is because he is afraid to offend his Chinese friends,” Alejano said.
But Malacañang dismissed Alejano’s supplemental impeachment complaint as “nonsense.”
“It’s nonsense geared for propaganda and publicity for himself,” Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said in a statement.
“It may even be deemed to be a second impeachment complaint, which is a prohibited complaint under the one-year prohibition limiting the filing to only one complaint in a year.”
Alejano said Duterte’s defense of China continued despite the categorical ruling of the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in 2012 that the Philippines had exclusive sovereign rights over Benham Rise, and the favorable ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016 on the contentious West Philippine Sea.
In his complaint, Alejano cited what he described as “disturbing” reports that China was preparing to build either an environmental monitoring station or a radar station at a number of islands including Scarborough Shoal, and Duterte’s pronouncement that he could not and would not stop China from building structures because it was too powerful.
Alejano also included in his complaint Duterte’s alleged permission to China’s sending of survey ships to Benham Rise without the knowledge of the Defense and Foreign Affairs departments.
“While no one is expecting Duterte to declare war with China over these territorial disputes, as President and Commander-In-Chief and Chief Diplomat of the country he should condemn China’s aggressive actions and expansionism,” Alejano, a former Marine captain, said.
He earlier filed his first impeachment complaint against Duterte for betrayal of public trust, culpable violation of the Constitution, bribery and other high crimes, denouncing the administration’s war on drugs and the Davao Death Squad which had allegedly been tolerated by Duterte during his stint as the city’s mayor.
“From local to international affairs, the President has betrayed the public’s trust, culpably violated the Constitution and committed other high crimes when he masterminded the killing of political opponents and alleged criminals when he was still a mayor,” Alejano said.
“It just shows that he is not fit to lead this country, and through the impeachment process, we hope that we could make him accountable for his acts.”