BAGO ang mahalagang botohan kung ang dalawang impeachment complaint laban kay Pangulong Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. ay uusad pa, binigyang-diin ng chair ng House committee on justice umaga ng Miyerkules na ang impeachment ay dapat nakabatay sa malinaw na facts o katotohanan na nakasaad sa reklamo – hindi sa hinala o pulitika.

Sinabi ni Batangas Rep. Gerville “Jinky Bitrics” Luistro na ang impeachment complaint “must meet a strict constitutional threshold” at hindi base lamang sa “loose associations or unproven claims.”

“Significantly, for a complaint to be sufficient in substance, let us all be reminded, it must do more than suggest wrongdoing by association or inference,” ani Luistro sa kanyang opening statement sa pagpapatuloy ng proceedings upang makita ang “sufficiency in substance” ng reklamong impeachment laban sa Pangulo.

“It must plead facts with particularity, showing that the official personally participated in knowingly authorized or culpably ignored acts that strike at the integrity of the office itself,” dagdag ni Luistro.

Iginiit pa ni Luistro na hindi maaaring gamitin ang impeachment bilang solusyon sa mga isyu sa iba pang bahagi ng gobyerno o sa mga policy decision na pinupuna.

Aniya, ang proseso “does not operate on a theory of strict liability for governance.”

“The official is not constitutionally impeachable simply because wrongdoing is alleged somewhere in the bureaucracy or because a policy decision is later criticized or questioned,” pahayag ni Luistro.

“To hold otherwise would collapse the careful constitutional design and render every official perpetually vulnerable to impeachment based on suspicion alone,” saad pa niya.

Binanggit ni Luistro na ang trabaho ng panel ay “narrowly defined and legally exacting.”

“Our task today is therefore disciplined, not dismissive, exacting, not adversarial,” aniya.

Ang gagawin ng komite ay tukuyin “whether the allegations as written stand on constitutional ground or whether they rest on speculation, conjecture, or political disagreement dressed merely in constitutional language,” sinabi ni Luistro.

Idinagdag pa niya na ang proceedings ay hindi rin sukatan ng sentimyentong politikal.

“Our proceeding today is intended to test the legal sufficiency of the complaint, not their popularity, not their rhetoric, not their political appeal,” wika niya.

“In doing so, this committee affirms a simple but vital principle: impeachment must protect the Constitution, not weaken it,” diin ni Luistro.