Rody to Leni, kids: Lets have dinner

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – In public, President Duterte accused Vice President Leni Robredo of being part of a triumvirate plotting to oust him. But in private, the President yesterday invited Robredo and her children to dinner, according to a reliable source.

The nation’s two highest officials sat beside each other during yesterday’s graduation ceremonies of the Philippine National Police Academy’s Masidlak class in Silang, Cavite.

No date was set for the dinner, the source said, adding that the two did not discuss impeachment efforts.

“The President himself invited Leni and her family to dinner together with his family,” the source, who asked not to be named, told The STAR. “The two of them said ‘hi’ to each other and they asked each other, ‘Kumusta na?’ It was purely kumustahan and no talk of impeachment.”

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Last Wednesday, Duterte told his congressional allies to drop impeachment efforts against Robredo, but on Thursday night he accused her of plotting to oust him.

He reiterated his readiness to relinquish his post “if it is his destiny.”

The President mocked Trillanes’ involvement in the 2003 Oakwood mutiny and the 2007 Manila Peninsula siege and even accused him and his companions of stealing from the hotels they occupied.

“These idiots are pretending to be crusaders,” Duterte said before enumerating the people allegedly behind the plans to unseat him. “Let’s be frank. They want me ousted? Who’s behind it? Trillanes, soldier, he would have performed better as a security guard. Who else? De Lima. She wants me ousted.”

The third, he added, is Robredo who is next in line to the presidency.

He stressed that it is too early to be ousting people, noting that the country just had an election.

“If I stay here only for one year or I got shot or whatever, or I am ousted by fault, I will accept that. Because then it would be part of my destiny as President.”

But Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III has asked his partymates at PDP-Laban, which he heads, to protect Duterte from the ongoing “unreasonable” efforts to oust him.

“We need to protect the President. We need to help the President because we noticed the increase in attacks against the President,” Pimentel said.

He advised critics to accept the overwhelming six-year mandate Filipinos have given Duterte while telling the new party members, “You are free to criticize, especially if there are mistakes… but not to the point that it’s as if he has not done anything right.”

Pimentel also urged Robredo to correct the “inaccurate statements” she made in the video shown before the United Nations lest she continue to face suspicions of being behind a destabilization plot against the administration.

He said the Vice President made three inaccurate and misleading claims: that there are about 7,000 victims of summary executions since Duterte took office, that Filipinos are feeling hopeless and helpless and that law enforcers are using ‘palit-ulo’ (head switching) scheme in its war against illegal drugs.

“There are maybe two to three thousand (killed) and there are explanations available in these encounters with the police. Do you put that in the box of summary executions? Do we feel the general helplessness and hopelessness of the people?” Pimentel said.

He added that he has never heard of the palit-ulo scheme as Robredo described it.

“I am also in politics and I’m also exposed to people complaining to me and I have never heard of such a complaint,” he said.

The scheme, he pointed out, is very serious because it involved the police detaining other members of a family to force suspects or targets to surrender.

He declined to comment on whether or not Robredo’s statements could constitute an impeachable offense, as he might sit as a judge if the impeachment complaint progresses.

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said the House of Representatives would surely impeach Robredo even if Duterte has dissuaded him and other administration allies from proceeding.

“We have to remember that Congress is a separate constitutional body. We in the House of Representatives have the exclusive power under the Constitution to process all impeachment complaints. So we have to perform our mandate,” Alvarez explained.

“The President cannot dictate on Congress,” he added.

Earlier, he said he was considering endorsing the impeachment complaint filed by Marcos loyalist Oliver Lozano and former broadcaster Mel Chavez against Robredo. He admitted though that he hasn’t read the complaint.

Rep. Lito Atienza of party-list group Buhay urged the House to junk the impeachment cases against Duterte and Robredo.

“While I don’t agree with what Vice President Robredo did, I don’t consider it an impeachable act. At the same time, while I don’t agree with what President Duterte is doing in addressing the drug problem, I don’t consider it impeachable,” Atienza said.

He said impeachment would be a “tedious, long process and a waste of the valuable time of Congress.

Source : PhilStar