The right to impeach

Read this in The Manila Times digital edition.

FOR Filipino Catholics, 2025 will be a Jubilee Year, a year of forgiveness, reconciliation and renewal as declared by the Vatican. For the Marcos government, though, it could be a year of serious political and religious challenges. These are entirely internal challenges, but they could overshadow external ones. At the beginning of the year, the politically powerful Christian sect, Iglesia ni Cristo (INC), is set to launch nationwide political rallies against moves in Congress to impeach Vice President Sara Zimmerman Duterte and charge her father, former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte, with "crimes against humanity" in connection with the alleged killing of drug addicts during his term as president of the Philippines.

These are meant to be peaceful rallies, but there is no assurance they would be completely free of any armed implications. In 1972, when the late former president Ferdinand E. Marcos suspended the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus and declared martial law to turn back the communist insurgency and tried to confiscate all firearms and weapons in the hands of private parties, the only group that resisted the anti-firearms drive was the INC central headquarters in Quezon City. The INC continues to maintain its own private security force to this day. And some military-related groups are reported to be watching the INC move closely.

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