(UPDATE) THOUSANDS of protesters gathered on EDSA on Friday, urging the House of Representatives to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte.Duterte faces three impeachment complaints over alleged misconduct and misuse of millions of pesos in government funds, but legislators have yet to tackle them just days before Congress adjourns next week ahead of the May midterm elections.The 46-year-old vice president, who is estranged from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. but remains his constitutional successor in case he is unable to perform his duties, has denied the allegations.Marcos himself has urged Congress not to pursue Duterte’s impeachment, calling it a “storm in a teacup” that would distract the legislature from its primary responsibilities.Protesters, mostly wearing white shirts, held placards calling for Duterte’s removal and chanted, “Impeach! Impeach Sara now!”
Around 4,000 people took part in the rally at the People Power Monument, police said, with authorities deploying 7,400 riot police to keep the peace.Those numbers were dwarfed by a mammoth rally held on Jan. 13 by the Iglesia ni Cristo that opposes Duterte’s impeachment.Akbayan party-list Rep. Percival Cendaña, who backs one of the impeachment complaints, joined Friday’s rally and urged his colleagues to move fast.Every day of inaction “condones the impunity, the abuse of power and the harassment that Duterte is doing to our country’s leaders,” he told reporters.An impeachment will only proceed if backed by a third of House members, and an impeached official can be removed from office by a two-thirds vote in the Senate.”The Filipino people are here, ready to stand for truth and justice. Let’s not fail them,” Cendaña said.Former chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo said on Friday the EDSA rally “lacked the support of the people” due to its low crowd numbers.”The rally at the People Power Monument initiated by the yellows and joined by the leftists, the primary purpose of which is to support the impeachment complaints against [Duterte], of which their leaders and members were complainants, but disguised as a rally against the perceived corruption in the worst passed [General Appropriations Act], could only a muster a measly police estimate of 4,000 attendees,” Panelo said.He said the rally is a “far cry” from the 1.8 million who joined the Iglesia ni Cristo rally at Rizal Park.”It only shows that these organizers lack the support of the people. The last two previous elections saw the overwhelming repudiation at the polls of these two discredited groups,” Panelo said.He said that the groups should “learn how to read and accept the people’s sentiments,” that the people are against Duterte’s impeachment “for being baseless and designed to destroy the reputation of the vice president, and to disqualify her in the 2028 presidential elections.”
