President can name a new VP if Sara gets convicted – analyst
PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. can name a new vice president if Vice President Sara Duterte is impeached and removed from office through impeachment, a political analyst said Thursday. Froilan Calilung, who teaches political science at the University of Santo Tomas, said the Constitution allows the president to nominate somebody to assume the vice presidency. He said that former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo nominated her party mate and then-senator Teofisto Guingona after the vice presidency was declared vacant in 2001. Guingona's nomination was then affirmed by Congress and he became the 11th vice president of the Philippines. "So most likely, what will happen here is that the president will appoint somebody who is their ally or is in their bloc, who will make their political maneuvers for 2028 easy for them," Calilung told The Manila Times. Politically, the greater impact of impeachment would be the "perpetual disqualification" of Duterte to run for any public office or hold any kind of government position, once she is convicted. "So effectively they are already able to weed out a strong potential opponent in Sara Duterte if these impeachment proceedings will materialize," Calilung said. The analyst also said there was a "strong chance" that a conviction might happen if the majority of the president's senatorial candidates win in the upcoming elections. "This is where we try to draw the line, if the 32 million people who supported VP Sara will be able to make a mark and stand their ground to not vote for the people that the administration is supporting in the Senate because they have the impeachment proceedings in mind, this is where we shall see if the Dutertes still possess a sway over the electorate," he said. On Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Duterte with 215 lawmakers signing to endorse the complaint to the upper chamber. The Senate, however, went on a break without tackling the impeachment bid. But Calilung said the impeachment before the House was unconstitutional as it "failed to satisfy the requisites for determining the sufficiency both in form and in substance of the complaint. "Well for one, I believe it was railroaded. Yes, there were impeachment complaints that were lodged even last year, however, this impeachment complaint which was filed and which was submitted to the Senate yesterday, I think it failed to satisfy the requisites of the Constitution in so far as the so-called sufficiency in form and substance is concerned because it did not go through the procedural prescriptions of the Constitution," he said. Calilung said that an impeachment was a "solemn function that is given to Congress" but its members should be given enough time "for them to be really able to go through the complaint itself to verify and validate and understand the allegations. "However, in this case since they had to rush it and they had to submit it to the Senate, I think this prescription of the Constitution, as you can see in Article XI, Section 3, was not really satisfied. So this makes this action unconstitutional to some extent because they were not able to go through the usual supposedly right process for an impeachment to push through," he said.
Tomas Kauer - Moderator 
PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. can name a new vice president if Vice President Sara Duterte is impeached and removed from office through impeachment, a political analyst said Thursday.
Froilan Calilung, who teaches political science at the University of Santo Tomas, said the Constitution allows the president to nominate somebody to assume the vice presidency.
He said that former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo nominated her party mate and then-senator Teofisto Guingona after the vice presidency was declared vacant in 2001. Guingona's nomination was then affirmed by Congress and he became the 11th vice president of the Philippines.
"So most likely, what will happen here is that the president will appoint somebody who is their ally or is in their bloc, who will make their political maneuvers for 2028 easy for them," Calilung told The Manila Times.
Politically, the greater impact of impeachment would be the "perpetual disqualification" of Duterte to run for any public office or hold any kind of government position, once she is convicted.
"So effectively they are already able to weed out a strong potential opponent in Sara Duterte if these impeachment proceedings will materialize," Calilung said.
The analyst also said there was a "strong chance" that a conviction might happen if the majority of the president's senatorial candidates win in the upcoming elections.
"This is where we try to draw the line, if the 32 million people who supported VP Sara will be able to make a mark and stand their ground to not vote for the people that the administration is supporting in the Senate because they have the impeachment proceedings in mind, this is where we shall see if the Dutertes still possess a sway over the electorate," he said.
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Duterte with 215 lawmakers signing to endorse the complaint to the upper chamber.
The Senate, however, went on a break without tackling the impeachment bid.
But Calilung said the impeachment before the House was unconstitutional as it "failed to satisfy the requisites for determining the sufficiency both in form and in substance of the complaint.
"Well for one, I believe it was railroaded. Yes, there were impeachment complaints that were lodged even last year, however, this impeachment complaint which was filed and which was submitted to the Senate yesterday, I think it failed to satisfy the requisites of the Constitution in so far as the so-called sufficiency in form and substance is concerned because it did not go through the procedural prescriptions of the Constitution," he said.
Calilung said that an impeachment was a "solemn function that is given to Congress" but its members should be given enough time "for them to be really able to go through the complaint itself to verify and validate and understand the allegations.
"However, in this case since they had to rush it and they had to submit it to the Senate, I think this prescription of the Constitution, as you can see in Article XI, Section 3, was not really satisfied. So this makes this action unconstitutional to some extent because they were not able to go through the usual supposedly right process for an impeachment to push through," he said.
