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MANILA: A Philippine congressional committee rejected impeachment complaints against President Ferdinand Marcos on Wednesday (Feb 4) over allegations he swindled taxpayers out of billions of dollars.
Marcos is facing a public firestorm over sham infrastructure projects meant to control flooding in the archipelago country, where typhoon-driven rains submerged entire towns last year.
One of the two complaints, endorsed by the Makabayan bloc of left-wing parties, accused Marcos of packing the national budget with projects aimed at redirecting funds to his allies.
Another focused on allegations that the arrest of ex-president Rodrigo Duterte and his transfer to the International Criminal Court constituted kidnapping.
But the committee voted overwhelmingly against both complaints, saying they lacked sufficient substance to move forward.
"It is clear from the complaint that the president did not do any overt act that shows that he directed" corruption schemes allegedly aimed at bilking taxpayers, Representative Ysabel Zamora, the committee's vice chair, said during a hearing before the vote.
"Having an imperfect policy direction is not an impeachable offence."
Lawmaker Alyssa Gonzales said the complaint failed to prove Marcos had participated in its alleged "systematic scheme of corruption".
"The president's specific role was never disclosed or included in the allegations," she said.
"BLOCK ACCOUNTABILITY"
Under the Philippine constitution, an impeachment by the House triggers a Senate trial, where a guilty verdict means expulsion from office and a lifetime ban on political service.
Makabayan bloc lawmaker Sarah Elago said the committee's decision was a "clear attempt to block the accountability process".
"The real reason the majority refuses to let the complaints proceed to a full-blown hearing is clear: the administration's allies do not want President Marcos Jr to ... explain and answer the serious allegations against him," she told reporters.
Presidential spokeswoman Claire Castro said lawmakers had seen "the real truth".
"We've seen that the complaints truly had no merit, and the president is confident he committed no impeachable offence," she told reporters after the ruling, adding Marcos believed it was now time to "move forward".
The committee hearing came just two days after a pair of impeachment complaints hit Marcos's vice president and arch political foe, Sara Duterte, Rodrigo Duterte's daughter, who is widely considered a possible presidential contender in 2028.
The other case against Marcos thrown out on Wednesday, brought by a local lawyer, had cited not only Rodrigo Duterte's arrest, but unproven allegations of drug abuse by the president.
In the Philippines, any citizen can file an impeachment complaint provided it is endorsed by one of the more than 300 members of Congress.
Dennis Coronacion, chair of the political science department at Manila's University of Santo Tomas, told AFP last month that the complaints had little chance of advancing as "the president still enjoys the support" of House members.
