Duterte to join Sara’s legal team vs impeachment

MANILA, Philippines — Former president Rodrigo Duterte will help in defending his daughter the Vice President in the legal storm she is expected to face next year, including three impeachment complaints.

Vice President Sara Duterte said since she refused financial aid from her father for her legal troubles, she allowed him to take part in crafting a defense with her team of lawyers.

“He said, since I won’t accept the money, he would lawyer for me. So he said he would be a collaborating counsel for all cases,” the Vice President said in Filipino, as quoted by ABS-CBN News.

She appeared in public with her father yesterday during their family’s yearly gift-giving for communities in Bangkal, Davao City.

The Vice President said her father was concerned about her legal troubles. She is also expecting possible criminal complaints for grave threats and for allegedly violating the Anti-Terrorism Law.

“He’ll be one of the lawyers for all of the cases, and he is preparing his documents now in IBP,” she said.

Three impeachment complaints have been filed against the Vice President – 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 concurrently as secretary of the Department of Education.

The second complaint, filed by progressive group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, 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.

“We made an inventory of cases based on what we read in media, based on interviews on agencies of government, House of Representatives, Department of Justice, NBI and PNP. And then each case there is an assigned lawyer to handle the case,” the Vice President said.

While she remains confident about her defense as she “did not break any laws,” Duterte earlier said she was uncertain about the political aspect of her legal woes.

“But as what we can see now, there’s no rule of law. So if there are cases, we will still face it,” 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 of Representatives, 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 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 uncertain.