SUPPORTERS of President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday failed to file an impeachment complaint against Vice President Leni Robredo because no lawmaker would like to endorse it.
Lawyer Bruce Rivera, one of the complainants, said his group had been coordinating with a potential endorser but refused to disclose who it was.
“I do not want to preempt [when the lawmaker is going to endorse the complaint],” he told reporters.
Georgina Hernandez, Robredo’s spokeswoman, said they were not surprised by the impeachment complaint planned to be filed by a group of lawyers against Robredo.
“In fact, they had threatened to file such in the past few weeks. They waited for such a long time [to file],” Hernandez said.
“Really, they do not have the evidence. This is just one fishing expedition.”
She made her statement even as Robredo on Monday paid before the Supreme Court the cash bond for her counter-protest against former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in their vice presidential race last year.
Accompanied by supporters, Robredo deposited with the high court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, the P8 million that she claimed she was able to raise by borrowing from the relatives of her late husband, Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo.
Rivera said the potential endorser of their impeachment complaint was Rep. Jericho Nograles, but he denied having anything to do with it.
“Do I know you? Have we ever met?” said Nograles, a member of the House committee on justice that deliberates on impeachment complaints.
“I was surprised to see my name in the complaint,” Nograles said, adding that he immediately asked Bruce’s group to leave his office.
Among the members of the Impeach Leni Movement are Tom Berenguer and Ahmed Paglinawan, political science professor Antonio Contreras and Trixie Cruz-Angeles.
Interior Assistant Secretary Epimaco Densing III was said to have been involved in the crafting of the complaint.
But Rivera, who served as a lawyer for “pork barrel queen” Janet Lim Napoles, admitted that President’s call for his allies to abort plans to unseat Robredo could be the main reason why the lawmakers were hesitant to file the complaint.
The Impeach Leni Movement wants Robredo impeached for alleged betrayal of public trust following her video message to the United Nations in which she talked about the victims of the administration’s brutal campaign against illegal drugs.