Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin defended President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. against the accusations made by the Makabayan bloc that he is “deliberately blocking” the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte.

“Let’s understand this in the proper context. The question asked to the President is ‘Are you in favor of impeachment?.' Of course, he will not say that he is in favor or he is not in favor because that is the prerogative of the Congress,” he said.

He explained that under the Constitution, impeachment must emanate from the lower house.

“If the President has made a statement at all about that process, it is only an opinion that he stated because he probably — the thinking of the President is that might be distracting us from our agenda or our move forward,” Bersamin noted.

Bersamin further said that the Executive Branch cannot dictate the lowe house of Congress as it is a “co-equal branch of government.”

“All we were saying, the President was saying to the lower house is ‘this is my position’ but he is not blocking. He is not blocking, he cannot do that eh. Because it is the discretion of the collective of the lower house. If they decide to initiate, there is no way of preventing that,” he emphasized.

Earlier this month, Marcos said the timing to tackle impeachment complaints against Duterte is “very poor” as lawmakers do not have time to pursue it especially that the election period is approaching.