The leadership of the House of Representatives on Wednesday threatened to file perjury and ethics complaints against Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano should he insist on bringing the issues on dismissed impeachment complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte before the International Criminal Court.
House Majority Leader and Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas said he will recommend to Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez the filing of complaints against Alejano in order for the party-list lawmaker to stop the propaganda.
“If he will bring the dismissed impeachment complaint before the ICC, I may also recommend to file [the charges] for him to realize that he is not doing the right thing,” Fariñas told reporters at a news conference.
Fariñas earlier warned that Alejano could face perjury and ethics complaints for giving false allegations under oath against President Duterte as contained in the impeachment complaint that was dismissed by the House committee on justice last Monday.
As of the moment, Fariñas said there was no marching order yet from Alvarez to file the necessary complaints against Alejano.
“There was no instruction from the Speaker yet. I do not speak for the House. The Speaker is the head of the House; when he says so, we will follow,” Fariñas said.
Fariñas reminded Alejano that President Duterte has been enjoying immunity from suit and the alleged issues being raised by Alejano did not fall under crimes against humanity or genocide which falls under the mandate of the ICC.
“The ICC has no jurisdiction over the case Alejano cited in the impeachment complaint. The ICC cannot meddle with the issue,” Fariñas said.
Earlier, Alejano vowed to face the consequences of his actions, including losing his seat in the House of Representatives. With Herand Kezia Pandaan
He also disclosed that lawyer Oliver Lozano, the serial impeachment filer, already filed a perjury complaint against him before the Office of the Ombudsman immediately after he lodged the impeachment complaint against President Duterte.
This developed as House Minority Leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez said Alejano must stop pushing for his baseless allegations against the President.
“This was fatal to the impeachment complaint and rendered vulnerable all the material allegations as objectionable based on hearsay,” Suarez said.
“As members of the House Minority, we are equal to the task of impeaching a public official if the impeachment complaint is sufficient in form and substance. The impeachment complaint filed by Rep. Alejano was insufficient in substance, and in the opinion of other members of the Minority, the complaint was also insufficient in form,” Suarez said.
“We see no justifiable reason to relax these rules, particularly in this case, where the complainant admitted to not having personal knowledge of his allegations,” he added.
Suarez said the most recent poll released by Pulse Asia stated that the President’s performance rating is at seventy-eight percent as of March 2017.
“This means that almost 8 out 10 Filipinos approve of the President’s performance. As district and sectoral representatives, we should be guided, and accord due recognition to the expressed support of our constituencies,” Suarez added. With Herand Kezia Pandaan