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Friday, March 29, 2024

Impeach-move won’t prosper–Aguirre

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ANY MOVES to impeach President Rodrigo Duterte for defending the policemen being held liable for the killing of Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa will not prosper, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said Sunday.

He downplayed the insinuations by Senators Leila de Lima and Antonio Trillanes IV that Duterte could be held liable and impeached for saying he would not allow the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group team who had been involved in Espinosa’s killing to go to jail.

He said Duterte did not violate the Constitution or betray public trust in issuing his statement.

President Rodrigo Duterte

“What is impeachable about it? What trust did the President betray?” Aguirre said,

He insisted that Duterte made the statement as part of his freedom to express himself.

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Aguirre, who served as a private prosecutor in the impeachment trial of the late Chief Justice Renato Corona, said the reaction from the President’s critics were exaggerated.

“They’re just making a big issue from it. If you examine the President’s statement, he merely exercised his freedom of expression,” he said.

He also rejected Trillanes’ claim that the President could be held liable for murder after publicly saying he ordered Espinosa’s killing.

“That’s the theory of someone who has no knowledge of the law. That’s the problem with someone who pretends to be a lawyer. He is not a lawyer,” Aguirre said.

He said there was no demoralization in the National Bureau of Investigation after the President publicly rejected its findings on the criminal liability of the CIDG team led by former CIDG Eastern Visayas director Marvin Marcos.

“I was able to talk to them [NBI officials] about it and they didn’t say anything negative to me,” he said.

In his speech last week, Duterte said he still believed the claims of the CIDG that the killing of Espinosa resulted from a shootout after he fired at them, and despite the NBI findings that it was a rubout.

“I will not allow these guys to go to prison even if the NBI says it was murder,” Duterte said. After all, the NBI is under me [and also] the Department of Justice.”

Aguirre earlier vowed to proceed with the preliminary investigation of the case and the other charges against Marcos and the  other respondents, saying the President’s remarks would not affect the criminal proceedings.

A high-level panel composed of five prosecutors has also been tapped for the probe and the Justice Department is expected to subpoena the respondents soon. 

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