CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — The Masa Sara Duterte Alliance (MASADA) on Wednesday criticized what it described as a “chopsuey, recycled” impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte, claiming that the allegations had already been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
In a statement, MASADA said the two impeachment complaints currently being deliberated by the House Committee on Justice contain the same narratives found in the first impeachment complaint that was declared void for violating the one-year ban on impeachment proceedings.
The group said the House Secretary General had transmitted the impeachment complaints to the House Speaker, who then referred them to the Committee on Rules before forwarding them to the Justice committee for deliberation.
MASADA said the House Committee on Justice was supposed to consolidate the four impeachment complaints but instead deliberated on them separately.
According to the group, the panel ruled that the first complaint violated the one-year ban but proceeded to examine the other complaints.
“The committee excluded the first complaint but deliberated the other complaint making it like a chopsuey,” MASADA convenor Benito Ranque said.
Ranque argued that the filing of the first complaint on 2 February should have triggered the one-year ban, adding that the other complaints, although filed later and endorsed by different lawmakers, contained essentially the same narratives.
He said that when the complaints were transmitted by the Committee on Rules to the Justice committee, they were effectively consolidated.
The House Committee on Justice is currently conducting hearings on the impeachment complaints filed against Duterte.