MANILA. Philippines - Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco believes that the House Justice Committee should justify in plenary that its upcoming committee report on the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte would translate to the articles of impeachment that would be transmitted to the Senate for trial.
Tiangco's comments come as the panel is set to deliberate the impeachment cases' sufficiency for probable cause on Wednesday, the last day of the hearings, after hearing Duterte's threats against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Marcos, and former Speaker Martin Romualdez.
In his interview on The Manila Times Newsroom on Tuesday, Tiangco said that the evidence that were presented during the hearings were "not enough" to make a judgment because they have not explained how these evidence could either be a culpable violation of the constitution or betrayal of public trust, two of the grounds for impeaching public officials.
"They should explain in the committee report that what [Duterte] did is equivalent to culpable violation of the constitution or betrayal of public trust." Tiangco said.
He added that the Committee should be able to justify the report why should its cases should fall under these two grounds.
"Even if there is wrongdoing, assuming there is wrongdoing, if it is not fit for either culpable violation of the constituion or betrayal of public trust, it should not be considered as a impeachable offense," Tiangco said.
