Malacañang on Friday dismissed allegations that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is obstructing the progress of impeachment complaints filed against Vice President Sara Duterte.
In a press briefing at the PICC, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin emphasized that the executive branch cannot dictate a co-equal branch of government, specifically referring to the legislative branch.
Bersamin further clarified that President Marcos' previous statement about the impeachment was merely his opinion.
He explained that the President was asked whether he supported the impeachment, but he could not directly answer because the impeachment process is the prerogative of Congress.
"You know that under the Constitution, the impeachment must emanate from the lower house," said Bersamin.
"If the President has made a statement at all about that process, it is only an opinion that he stated because probably the thinking of the President is - that might be distracting us from our agenda and our move forward," he added.
In November of last year, President Marcos Jr. verbally expressed his opposition to filing any impeachment complaint against the Vice President.
He explained that the impeachment process would ultimately "tie down" both the House of Representatives and the Senate, consuming their time without yielding any productive results.
Bersamin reiterated that Marcos merely expressed his opinion and was not, in any way, obstructing potential proceedings.
"He is not blocking, he cannot do that, because it is the discretion of the collective of the lower house. If they decide to initiate, there is no way of preventing that," Bersmin explained.
'HE IS NOT BLOCKING, HE CANNOT DO THAT'
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WATCH: Itinanggi ni Executive Sec. Lucas Bersamin na hinaharang ni Pang. @bongbongmarcos ang proseso ng impeachment laban kay VP @indaysara | RH 14 @leth_narciso, DZRH News pic.twitter.com/Sex54KylVe
The Makabayan bloc first pointed to Marcos as the alleged cause of the delay in the proceedings of the three impeachment complaints filed against Vice President Duterte.
Duterte is currently facing impeachment complaints on various grounds, including the betrayal of public trust.
