VP Sara Duterte Faced with 2 Impeachment Raps in House
SARA DUTERTE – The spokesperson of the legal team of the Vice President confirmed that she has filed her answer to the impeachment complaints.
Even before the lifting of the ban on the filing of the impeachment rap against the Vice President, a fresh impeachment complaint has already been filed against her before the Office of the Secretary General of the House of Representatives in February. It was followed by three (3) more impeachment complaints,
The House Justice Committee set aside the first impeachment complaint filed against Vice Pres. Sara Duterte. The panel found it to be a violation against the one-year rule ban.
Tindig Pilipinas withdrew the second impeachment that they filed against Duterte. Instead, the complainants decided to support the third impeachment rap filed against the Vice President, thus, they withdrew their complaint to avoid procedural delay.
Several grounds were raised against the Vice President in the third impeachment complaint filed against her. They are as follows:
- Alleged culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes in amassing and converting the amount over PHP 500 million confidential funds (CF) allocated to the Office of the Vice President from 2022 to 2023
- Alleged culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes in amassing and converting the amount of not less than PHP 112.5 million of confidential funds allocated to the Department of Education (DepEd) for the year 2023
- Alleged culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust by corrupting and bribing officials of the DepEd
- Alleged culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes in contracting to murder or assassinate the president, the first lady, and the former speaker of the House
- Alleged culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust in amassing unexplained wealth and failing to disclose all her properties and interests in properties in her SALN
- Alleged culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust in committing acts of political destabilization and the high crimes of sedition and insurrection
Vice Pres. Sara Duterte was given 10 days to respond to the impeachment complaints filed against her before the House of Representatives. Recently, Atty. Michael Poa, the spokesperson of Duterte’s legal team, confirmed that the Vice President has filed her answer to the impeachment raps.
While Vice Pres. Sara Duterte did not give a categorical answer with regards to her response to the impeachment complaints a day before the deadline, based on News5, Atty. Michael Poa confirmed that she filed the Answer Ad Cautelam before March 16, the deadline, ended.
According to Poa, part of the response of Duterte included the issue over the “constitutionality” of the impeachment proceedings as well as the alleged lack of due process for the Vice President. Furthermore, based on the post, the camp of the Vice President stated that there’s allegedly no presentation of “ultimate facts” in the complaints.
“Hindi po naglalaman ng ultimate facts ‘yung mga complaint na naihain laban sa bise presidente kaya po sa totoo lang, wala tayong maisasagot sa kanila,” Poa said.
Amid being faced with impeachment raps, the Vice President previously announced that she will run for president in the next national polls. Recently, Vice Pres. Sara Duterte also claimed that four (4) politicians allegedly reached out to her to be part of her senatorial slate in 2028.