Duterte tells allies: Lay off Leni impeachment

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo found herself an unlikely ally in President Rodrigo Duterte in efforts to impeach her after the chief executive told those behind the move to stop it.

After arriving from visits to Myanmar and Thailand, the president said that Robredo’s recorded remarks sent to a United Nations side event were part of her freedom of speech.

“Look, you know, we just had an election. Guys, lay off. Let’s stop it,” he said at an early press conference on Thursday, when asked about the basis of the planned impeachment charge against the vice president.

Duterte also said that the vice president did not commit any overt act that warrant her removal from office. He said such criticisms were to be expected in a democracy.

The president said that the military and police would not support such a move that would just add to the problems facing the nation.

Robredo was elected, says Duterte

Duterte also seemed to have rejected that the doubts of Alvarez on Robredo’s legitimacy.

“Elected 'yang tao e. So why do you have to? Just because she keeps on harping on me? Hayaan mo, this is a democracy, freedom of speech,” he said. “There is no or there are no overt acts committed.”

Duterte also said that an impeachment process would be counterproductive for the Philippines.

Weeks ago, Robredo criticized the government’s war on drugs in a message to a United Nations forum and exposed how government authorities violated basic rights of suspects and their families, many of whom are poor.

The vice president revealed an alleged “palit ulo” (exchange of head) scheme in which relatives of drug suspects on a drug list were taken out if the suspects themselves could not be found.

“They told us of the palit ulo scheme (exchange heads), where the wife or husband or relative of a person in a so-called drug list will be taken if the person could not be found,” Robredo said in the video.

Robredo also mentioned the mounting death toll arising from the government’s campaign, with police figures putting it at more than 3,600 people while others peg the number at more than 7,000 people.

Her stinging criticism of one of the government’s vaunted programs led some allies of the president, most notably House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, to contemplate filing an impeachment complaint against her for allegedly tarnishing the country’s image before the eyes of the international community.

“Sa kasaysayan ng Pilipinas, ngayon lang po nangyari yan may opisyal ng gobyerno na nagpadala ng video clip doon at walang pangundangan na siniraan ang ating bayan. Malaki po ang epekto nun sa ekonomiya, sa tourism, painting the country as bad na hindi naman totoo,” Alvarez explained, ignoring statements from the European Union that the country’s continuing war on drugs, not Robredo’s video message, could affect Philippine trade with the bloc.

On Friday, a former lawyer of dictator Ferdinand Marcos and another individual filed an impeachment complaint against the vice president. In filing it, they also asked Alvarez to endorse their impeachment charge which heavily borrowed from a newspaper column for much of its content.