A YouTube video claimed that Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero has dismissed the impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte. This is false.
Posted on June 3, the spurious video shows a document marked “dismissed,” and with a thumbnail that read:
“Chiz umatras na? (Chiz retreated already?)”
With numbers replacing some letters to dodge keyword detection, the title partly read,
“GoodNews Pirmad0 na! Senad0 Nagdisisy0n na Bumaligtad Chiz Umamin kay VpSara?
(Good news, already signed! Senate decided to switch sides, Chiz admitted to VP Sara?)”
The Senate president only delayed the presentation of the Articles of Impeachment initially set on June 2, to June 11, as stated in a Senate press release.
Meanwhile, Sen. Imee Marcos has confirmed that drafts of Senate resolutions in different versions seeking to dismiss the impeachment case against the vice president have been circulating, according to news reports on June 4.
However, Sens. Risa Hontiveros, Koko Pimentel, JV Ejercito and Cynthia Villar said they have not seen such a resolution.
Later, Sen. Bato Dela Rosa admitted to initiating a resolution to block the proceedings.
According to Esudero, no resolution intending to kill the impeachment has been filed.
The Senate is set to decide on June 11 whether to proceed with the convening of an impeachment court to begin the trial of the vice president.
YouTube page PINAS NEWS INSIDER (created Dec. 26, 2015), which has 1.18 million subscribers, posted the video that has so far garnered over 71,000 views.
