President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had said numerous times he did not want Vice President Sara Duterte impeached, yet his son, Ilocos Norte 1st District Representative Sandro Marcos, led the list of signatories in the complaint that hurdled the House of Representatives on Wednesday, February 5.
So either the son openly defied the father’s wishes, or his vote revealed what the President really wanted behind closed doors. Which one is it?
In the complaint that passed the House, the very first article of impeachment was about Duterte’s threat of violence against the Marcos family.
It said Duterte betrayed public trust, culpably violated the Constitution, and committed high crimes when she — in her own words — had spoken with an assassin and instructed them to kill the President, First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos, and Speaker Romualdez if she were to be killed.
“These statements, which came in the heels of respondent Duterte’s prior disclosure that she had previously found herself wanting to behead the President, so alarmed the nation that it was immediately treated as an active threat,” the complaint read.
“To state that the acts of respondent Duterte undermines peace and order is an understatement. They are destabilizing, and forward unconstitutional means to remove an elected president from power, in contravention of the most fundamental principle in the 1987 Constitution declaring the Philippines as a democratic state where government authority emanates from the people,” it added.
So when Marcos signed the complaint, it was consistent with the kind of optics he had presented to the public in the past: a son ready to defend his family from the attacks of their rivals.
In October last year, the House senior deputy majority leader issued a rare statement criticizing the Vice President for saying she had imagined decapitating the incumbent president.
“Going ballistic was perhaps the self-therapy she prescribed for herself. But she crossed the line, leaving the civic and civil space in which disagreements can be rationally argued,” the younger Marcos had said at the time.
The younger Marcos said his father “advised me to withhold my disappointment” but he decided to speak up nonetheless.
That statement, however, was officially distributed by the Presidential News Desk, indicating that it was not a rogue move with no blessing from the President.
History also tells us that a House closely allied with the President does not make major decisions without the go signal from the chief executive.
Nonetheless, the younger Marcos’ signature in the complaint inevitably provided another layer of confidence for congressmen toeing the party line.
Four more relatives of the President in the House signed the impeachment complaint.
They are Speaker Romualdez, his wife Tingog Representative Yedda, TUCP Representative Democrito Mendoza, and North Cotabato 3rd District Representative Ma. Alana Samantha Santos.
Ilocos Norte 2nd District Representative Eugenio Angelo Marcos-Barba and Navotas Representative Toby Tiangco, meanwhile, did not sign the complaint. (READ: Who are lawmakers who supported, didn’t back Sara Duterte’s impeachment?) – Rappler.com
(Editor’s note: An initial version of this article misstated that seven relatives of the President in the House signed the impeachment complaint. The correct figure is five. Ilocos Norte 2nd District Representative Eugenio Angelo Marcos-Barba and Navotas Representative Toby Tiangco did not sign the complaint.)