The House of Representatives on Tuesday affirmed the decision of the House committee on justice to junk the impeachment complaint filed against President Rodrigo Duterte. In plenary session, the House voted 217-4 to junk the impeachment rap filed against the President by Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano, as contained in House justice committee report 1015.
Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said “the decision was expected.”
The House justice committee, chaired by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, earlier killed the ouster move against Mr. Duterte by dismissing the complaint for lack of substance last May 15. It adopted its decision to junk the complaint last May 22.
The committee voted to strike down the complaint filed by Alejano after he admitted of having no personal knowledge on the allegations he raised in the complaint.
The impeachment complaint was deemed initiated on May 9, 2017 following the plenary referral to his panel, the date when the one-year bar on filing a similar impeachment complaint against President Duterte took effect.
Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez earlier said any impeachment move against the President would not prosper.
“The dismissal of the impeachment complaint against the President affirms that it was bereft of any probative value,” Alvarez earlier said.