Amid the Ongoing Senate Tension, House Member Speaks on Possible Impeachment Trial of VP Sara Duterte
HOUSE MEMBER – Batangas 2nd District Representative Gerville Luistro spoke on the pending impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte amid the Senate tension.
The House of Representatives has impeached Vice Pres. Sara Duterte for the second time around. Prior to the lower chamber impeaching the Vice President again, the Senate had a change of leadership.
Then-Senate Pres. Tito Sotto was ousted and replaced with Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano. The latter was the Senate minority leader prior to his election as SP. It is no secret to the Filipinos that most of the Duterte ally senators were part of the then-minority bloc.
There were a lot of speculations linking the change of leadership to the possible impeachment trial of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte. Then-SP Tito Sotto had always been vocal of his belief that an impeachment trial should immediately start.
Then-newly-elected Senate Pres. Alan Peter Cayetano denied that the change in leadership has something to do with the impeachment trial. Several grounds were raised against the Vice President including the following:
- 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
The House Committee on Justice found two (2) impeachment complaints filed against Vice Pres. Sara Duterte as sufficient in form, substance, and grounds. Recently, Justice panel’s chairperson and Batangas 2nd District Rep. Gerville Luistro spoke on the pending impeachment trial of the Vice President amid the tension in the Senate.
Based on News5, the House Member claimed that the Filipino people will allegedly get mad if the authorities will keep on delaying the impeachment trial of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte. According to her, the survey shows that the “super majority” of the Pinoy populace is waiting for the trial.
“Magagalit ang mga Pilipino if we keep on delaying this impeachment trial,” the House Member said.
Furthermore, based on the post, Rep. Gerville Luistro stressed that the Filipino people has yet to receive an answer since the 19th Congress. The remarks of the House Member came amid a recent controversial Senate shakeup.
Amid the Senate session wherein 12 senators voted to declare all Senate positions vacant, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano claimed that he is allegedly still the legal and moral Senate President of the Republic of the Philippines.