Short link: https://wp.me/paaccn-Lre
- EDD K. USMAN | X (Twitter): @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 |Facebook: SDN – SciTech & Digital News
CLUB FILIPINO, San Juan City, January 18, 2025 (SDN) — On January 13, a massive crowd of nearly two million warm bodies from the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) assembled at the Quirino Grandstand, Rizal Park, Manila, National Capital Region, to protest the impeachment of embattled Vice President Inday Sara Z. Duterte.
Simultaneously in 12 other cities across the country, hordes of INC members also took to the streets to align their sentiments with the rally in Manila.
Anti-Vice President Duterte groups and individuals, however, were apparently taking for granted the rallyists’ gargantuan number — which Panelo likes to put at over 1.8 million people.
In the runup to the protest rally, leaders of the politically significant religious group portrayed the activity as a “National Rally for Peace” and in support of the adverse stand of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. on his Vice President’s series of impeachment cases.
For Panelo, former presidential legal counsel and spokesperson of the then President Rodrigo R. Duterte, Marcos’s predecessor, the INC rally was in truth against Congress.
“Imagine, the 1.8 million is a huge number that cannot be ignored,” he says at the media forum on January 17 called “The Agenda” hosted weekly in Club Filipino here by lawyer Sigfred Mison.
He said the January 13 peace rally was more of being “anti-Congress” and not in support of the President’s call to not proceed with the Vice President’s impeachment.
Earlier, Marcos had already pronounced his opposition to the impeachment and, in reply to former Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile, his chief presidential legal counsel, said today is not the time for the impeachment to proceed.
“Bad timing…not practical,” the President had said as quoted in news reports
“Hindi ito ang tamang panahon na para isulong ang impeachment complaint laban kay Vice President Sara Duterte,” the President asserted in a news report from the Philippine Star. (This is not the right time to push through the impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte.)
Panelo said that when he went to the INC rally, he had to walk to the Quirino Grandstand because of the massive number of people on the streets surrounding the activity.
House solons developed disinterest on Vice President’s impeachment
He said he saw a placard that says, “Magnanakaw kayo” (You are thieves).
The placard did not refer to anyone in particular. But did the INC rallyists refer to the men and women of the House of Representatives?
Other guest panelists at the Club Filipino media forum were lawyer Kristine Conti, International Criminal Court (ICC) assistant counsel, and ACT Teachers Party-list sectoral Rep. France Castro.
Panelo’s statement was in answer to Castro who said the INC rally did not represent the Filipino majority.
She added the “silent majority” has not even spoken yet, at the same time noting that in a recent survey by the Social Weather Station (SWS) 41 percent supported the three impeachment cases. A fourth case is coming, she pointed out with the support of 103 legislators.
“If it is true there are already 103 endorsers for the fourth impeachment case against the Vice President, the complainants should be revealed,” Panelo, who joined hundreds of Muslim worshipers at the Greenhills Mall Mushallah (Prayer Room) performing the “Juma’ah” (Friday) prayer.
According to the rules of the Lower House of Congress, the Senate being the Upper House, an impeachment complaint can be directly transmitted to the latter if there’s a sufficient number of the required endorsers from the former.
Recall that during the Rizal Park rally, speakers after speakers from the INC took turns lambasting Congress members who support the impeachment cases.
Meanwhile, in an apparent criticism of the President for what Castro described as his “dilly-dallying and inaction” on the impeachment clamor of the “Filipino people”, she warned that this “could lead to the anger of the public”.
It remains to be seen if Marcos would take kindly, or adversely, to the party-list congresswoman’s criticism, or perhaps words that may not sit well with presidential allies and supporters.
On the other hand, the Vice President has expressed her thanks to the INC for coming out behind her. She made the gesture in a video message flashed during the rally.
“I thank our brothers and sisters in the INC for their dedication to deliver understanding and unity to our countrymen,” the Vice President, speaking in Filipino, said as quoted by the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
“Amid the rising price of goods, poverty, and other challenges, a peaceful and united Philippines will never falter and will always rise up to challenges.”
After the rally at the Rizal Park (formerly the Luneta Park), the Filipino masses’ favorite hangouts, some House solons were reported to have “gone cold” on the impeachment as reported in the Daily Tribune. (/)