A YouTube video claims that President Ferdinand Marcos is facing impeachment over the near-depletion of the government’s quick response fund (QRF) after back-to-back typhoons hit the country. This is not true.
On Nov. 10, a YouTube channel published the video. Replacing some letters with numbers in an apparent attempt to evade keyword detection, it bore the headline:
“KAKAPASOK LANG Paktay na! D0uble Impeachment PBBM at Abante? Pagkaub0s ng QRF at Bigatin Luh0 Rason?
(Just in, they’re dead! Double impeachment against [President Ferdinand Marcos] and [Rep. Bienvenido Abante]? The exhaustion of the QRF and huge wealth is the reason?)”
There is no pending impeachment complaint against Marcos in Congress due to the depletion of the QRF. As a member of the House of Representatives, Abante cannot be impeached. An erring lawmaker can only be removed or expelled with the concurrence of two-thirds of the House members.
According to Article XI of the 1987 Constitution, an impeachable official may be removed from office if Congress convicts him/her of “culpable violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, graft and corruption, other high crimes, or betrayal of public trust.”
A verified complaint may be filed by any member of the House of Representatives or a citizen endorsed by a House member to start the impeachment process. No House member or citizen has filed a complaint to remove the president from his position.
The video narrator presented no evidence to support his claim in the 38-minute video and instead showed various political commentators – some of whom are notable supporters of former president Rodrigo Duterte – questioning why the QRF is nearly exhausted when previous administrations never experienced this.
Last week, Marcos promised that the government would replenish the QRF of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. Under his directive, the Department of Social Work and Development announced on Nov. 13 that it is readying P2.2 billion in “standby funds and stockpile items” for victims of the typhoons.
The video emerged after three typhoons – Marce, Nika and Ofel – struck the country in the last two weeks, affecting thousands of barangays and causing millions worth of infrastructure and agricultural damages in Luzon.
YouTube channel PINAS NEWS HEADLINES (created on July 24, 2017) published the spurious video, garnering over 101,000 views and 3,900 online interactions.
