(Eagle News) – The House justice committee has voted to declare as “sufficient in form” but “insufficient in substance” the impeachment complaint filed by Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano against President Rodrigo Duterte.
“We hereby declare that the impeachment complaint is sufficient in form. We will now proceed with the determination on the sufficiency of substance,” Rep. Reynaldo Umali, the chair of the House committee on Justice said.
Oriental Mindoro Rep. Doy Leachon then moved to have the impeachment complaint dismissed for insufficiency of substance.
“I am now moving that the impeachment complaint filed by Congressman Alejano as insufficient in substance. I do believe that we have nothing to hear,” Rep. Leachon said.
“We cannot defer on the voting.”
“There is no objection so the motion is carried,” Umali said.
Before this, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman then voiced his opinion that the House committee should still hear the complaint even if there was already an admission from Rep. Alejano that he has no personal knowledge to the material allegation of his impeachment complaint against Duterte.
Lagman, on the other hand, is not a member of the House committee on justice, so his objection was not considered.
When voting was done, there were 42 members of the House, or the majority of the committee, who voted that the impeachment complaint against the President was insufficient in substance.
Before the voting happened, the House committee on justice first had an executive session where they deliberated on the motion by House justice committee chair Misamis Occidental Rep. Henry Oaminal who moved to have the impeachment complaint filed by Alejano be considered by the House as “sufficient in form.”
This was despite manifestations and discoveries that it violated the rules of the House on the verification process.
House majority leader Rodolfo Farinas said after the executive session that they were considering the motion, only “out of their liberality.”
“This will be the last time the committee will entertain (a complaint) where the affiant violates paragraph 3 of the verification (procedure),” he said