The Beast and Beauty

PHILIPPINES - In Brief 30 Mar 2017 by Romeo Bernardo

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The tale is a bizarre one. Barely nine months in office, both President Rodrigo Duterte and his deputy, Vice President Leni Robredo, are facing the prospect of impeachment. In the former case, the complaint filed before congress went on recess in mid-March sought to impeach the President for among others encouraging a bloody war against suspected perpetrators of drug-related crimes[1]. In the latter case, the complaint pending the endorsement of the speaker of the House of Representatives alleged that the Vice President betrayed the nation following her video message screened at a side event of UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (UN-CND) meeting in Austria criticizing human rights violations in connection with the President's drug war. Supporters on both sides have accused each other of masterminding the ouster moves, albeit both the President and the VP have denied involvement. In fact, the President has asked his supporters to leave the VP alone, and both have stressed that impeachment moves against the other are too soon given their relatively fresh electoral mandates. In our view neither case is likely to prosper. In the case of the President, the argument is straightforward, he is too popular. Impeachment is a numbers game and he enjoys supermajority support in congress. On the other hand, the VP's case, even if it hurdles the lower house – quite unlikely without the President's support – will hardly get anywhere in the Senate where a 2/3 majority is required for conviction. For the most part we consider both cases nuisances that will only distract from more important legislative priorities – the tax reform bill for one. Yet that is not to say that these are one-offs...