Yearender: VP ends tumultuous 2024 facing 3 impeach complaints

MANILA, Philippines — Facing three impeachment complaints, Vice President Sara Duterte will end 2024 uncertain about her chances in the forthcoming proceedings due to the significant number of allies who have since turned against her.

During her last public appearance earlier this month, Duterte said while her camp had staked hopes on a strong legal defense against the complaints, they have conceded the impeachment’s political aspect, which requires votes from lawmakers.

“No, we’re not confident with numbers now because impeachment is a… in the legal aspect, we’re confident because all the lawyers are reviewing the drafts of the complaint. But with regards to (the political aspect), that’s a different matter altogether,” Duterte said.

Duterte is facing three impeachment complaints – the first two of which were filed days apart earlier this month. The first complaint cited 24 Articles of Impeachment covering alleged violations of the 1987 Constitution, starting from when Duterte was Davao City mayor in 2007 up to the time she was elected Vice President in 2022 and served as secretary of the DepEd in a concurrent capacity.

The complainants, composed of civil society groups and politicians aligned with the Liberal Party, primarily hinged on allegations of Duterte’s supposed misuse of her office’s confidential funds. They alleged that the Vice President was guilty of “culpable violation” of the 1987 Constitution, as well as “guilty of graft and corruption, bribery, betrayal of public trust and other high crimes.”

They also included two of Duterte’s statements: the first in October, when she mentioned that she wanted to cut off Marcos’ head, and the latest on Nov. 23, when she vowed to have the Chief Executive killed if she herself would be killed.

The second complaint, filed by progressive group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, also sought to hold Duterte accountable for her alleged misuse of confidential funds and her alleged betrayal of public trust for refusing to cooperate with Congress in its inquiries.

Catholic priests and lawyers filed the third impeachment complaint against Duterte last week, citing as grounds her misuse of hundreds of millions of pesos of her confidential funds, including when she was secretary of DepEd.

The group said the Vice President must be held accountable for her “culpable violation of the Constitution, bribery, graft and corruption, plunder, malversation and technical malversation, and betrayal of public trust.”

Duterte said she has different lawyers dedicated to handling each of her cases, which she believes improves her chances of arguing against allegations against her.

The Vice President also bared having commenced preparations for her legal defense as early as last year when impeachment talks were first raised in the House of Representatives during their inquiry into her supposed anomalous confidential fund spending as vice president and education secretary.

“We have been preparing for this ever since (ACT-Teachers Party-list Rep.) France Castro first spoke of impeachment last year,” she added.

The president, vice president, justices of the Supreme Court, members of constitutional commissions and the Ombudsman can be removed from office through impeachment if they are convicted of culpable violations of the Constitution, treason, bribery and other high crimes, according to Article XI of the 1987 Constitution.

Complaints are filed in the House, the epicenter of the Vice President’s rift with the Marcos family and their allies, whose members serve as prosecutors during impeachment proceedings. A vote of a third of lawmakers in this chamber is required to establish probable cause to impeach an official, thereby commencing the impeachment trial.

The proceedings will then turn the Senate into an impeachment court. Senators will sit as judges to hear arguments and evidence from both the prosecution and the defense and eventually decide the case.

A vote from two-thirds of its members is required to convict an impeached official.

While Duterte has conceded on her chances before the House of Representatives, where the number of her allies remains to be determined following her tumultuous year of locking horns with leaders of the chamber over her office’s budget proposal and spending issues, she believes she can present a strong case.

In the Senate, her allies beyond senators Ronald dela Rosa, Bong Go, Robin Padilla and the president’s sister Imee Marcos, remain obscured.