A proponent of the “Peach Movement,” which filed the first impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte, denounced Supreme Court justices who junked the impeachment case, saying concerned magistrates revealed that their true allegiance remains with the appointing powers, and not to upholding justice.
“They [SC justices] were true to form. It turns out that their real loyalty was never to the people or the rule of law, but to the one who appointed them,” Fr. Flavie Villanueva, SVD, told Manila Standard on Friday.
“We anticipated this [SC decision], but the bite of reality stings hard nonetheless,” he added.
Villanueva also castigated the Senate for its dilatory tactics that led to the impeachment complaint’s apparent demise, criticizing Senators for making decisions based on political expediency at the expense of accountability.
The catholic priest also lamented how the public has displayed such a nonchalant attitude towards brazen moves by their leaders to kill the impeachment complaint despite clear evidence of the Vice President’s misconduct.
“This is where ‘Dutertenism’ has brought our society. This [junking of the impeachment case] has the image of Duterte written all over it. It is a cultic exercise indeed,” he stressed.
Villanueva vowed that his group will join like-minded organizations in mounting rallies to protest the high court’s move, and the first of such protest actions is likely to be staged on the same day the President will deliver his fourth State of the Nation Address.
