Philippines' top judge vows fight as Duterte, allies seek her ouster

The Philippine Supreme Court chief justice vowed to fight "bullying" and save judicial independence as President Rodrigo Duterte's congressional allies launched an impeachment process Thursday to remove her from office. Voting 38-2, the House of Representatives justice committee said there was "probable cause" to impeach Maria Lourdes Sereno, in a move critics allege is part of wider efforts by Duterte to destroy foes and usher in one-man rule.
A US-style impeachment trial in the Senate will follow if the House adopts the committee report, focusing on allegations Sereno failed to pay about two million pesos ($40,000) in taxes.
"All kinds of lies, threats, harassment and bullying have been thrown my way but I will not yield," Sereno, the country's first female chief justice, said at an International Women's Day event in Manila.

"I am fighting for our future as a freedom-loving nation," the 52-year-old said, framing the case against her as an issue of "judicial independence".

Pursuit of power: Mugabe- Zimbabwe's liberator and, for many, its oppressor

When he came to power, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe was feted as an African liberation hero in a nation that had endured nearly a century of white colonial rule.

Nearly four decades after the country’s independence from Britain in 1980, he was regarded by many as an autocrat, willing to unleash death squads, rig elections and trash the economy in the relentless pursuit of power.

The 93-year-old resigned as president on Tuesday, ending 37 years of rule. He had clung on for a week after an army takeover and expulsion from his ZANU-PF party, but quit after parliament began an impeachment process against him.

Educated and urbane, Mugabe took power after seven years of a liberation bush war and is the only leader Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia, has known since independence from Britain in 1980.

The army seized power last week after Mugabe sacked ZANU-PF’s favourite to succeed him, Vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa, to smooth a path to the presidency for his wife Grace, 52, known to her critics as “Gucci Grace” for her reputed fondness for luxury shopping.

“It’s the end of a very painful and sad chapter in the history of a young nation, in which a dictator, as he became old, surrendered his court to a gang of thieves around his wife,” Chris Mutsvangwa, leader of Zimbabwe’s influential liberation war veterans, told Reuters after the army takeover.
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How Donald Trump could be removed from office under the US Constitution

As Washington becomes increasingly engulfed by the spiralling crises in Donald Trump’s presidency, and even prominent Republicans compare it to the dark days of Watergate, even Republican voices have been asking how Donald Trump might be replaced.

Six decades ago, Dwight Eisenhower’s various illnesses stimulated a serious debate in the Congress over this question, but it was not until the 1963 assassination of his successor John F. Kennedy that Congress approved the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution, which provided a set of procedures for replacing a president in the event of death, removal (permanently or temporarily), resignation, or incapacity.

This plugged a significant constitutional gap. Although Article II, section one of the US Constitution discusses the issue of presidential succession, it did not spell out how a vice-president would assume the presidency if an incumbent died, resigned or was unable to perform the office’s duty. When Kennedy died, the new president, Lyndon Johnson, had known health issues; the next two people in line for the presidency were 71-year-old House speaker, John McCormack, and the 86-year-old Senate president pro tempore, Carl Hayden.

Ultimately ratified by a majority of the states in 1967, the 25th Amendment’s procedures were first invoked in 1973, when Richard Nixon’s vice-president, Spiro Agnew, resigned after pleading no contest to a charge of federal income tax evasion in exchange for the dropping of political corruption charges. The amendment was triggered again less than a year later during the Watergate affair, after the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives approved articles of impeachment against Nixon for obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress.

Nixon resigned, and his new vice-president, Gerald Ford, was sworn in as the 38th president under section one of the amendment; for his new vice-president he nominated Nelson Rockefeller, whom both congressional chambers confirmed by simple majorities. Thus the nation’s two highest offices were filled without a popular vote.
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Philippine lawmakers reject impeachment complaint against President Duterte

Philippine lawmakers on Monday rejected an impeachment complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte that accused him of a crime against humanity over the deaths of thousands of people killed in his war on drugs.

The complaint alleged Duterte had adopted a state policy of extrajudicial killings that led to more than 8,000 deaths in his first eight months as president, and was involved in mass murder as well as widespread corruption in his previous stint as a mayor of a southern city.

The congressional justice committee quickly dismissed the complaint in its first day of hearings on the issue, overwhelmingly voting that it was "insufficient in substance".

"The complaint filed was frivolous. How can you proceed if the complaint has no basis," committee chairman Reynaldo Umali, who is a member of Duterte's ruling party, told reporters afterwards.

The committee vote effectively ends the impeachment case, which even Duterte's opponents conceded had little chance of prospering with the president enjoying a commanding majority in the lower house of congress.

A plenary of the lower house still needs to endorse the committee's decision, although political observers and lawmakers said there was zero chance of Monday's vote being overturned.

"We have nowhere to go (but) we will find a way to get justice," opposition lawmaker Gary Alejano, who filed the impeachment case, told reporters.
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