Bayan pushes VP impeachment before Christmas break

MANILA, Philippines — Lawmakers should impeach Vice President Sara Duterte before Congress adjourns for the Christmas break, militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said yesterday.

Stressing the importance of holding Duterte accountable for wasting government funds, Bayan chairman Teddy Casiño said the House of Representatives should immediately act and send the impeachment complaints to the Senate for trial.

Doing so would ensure there is a decision on the complaints against Duterte before the 2025 midterm elections.

Rendering justice and accountability on the highest officials of the land is a duty that should be given the highest priority by the legislative branch, Casiño said in a statement.

Lawmakers from the Makabayan bloc are gathering signatures from one-third of over 300 House members before submitting their impeachment complaint to the plenary.

Civil society groups and Akbayan also filed a separate impeachment case against Duterte.

Duterte is accused of wasting confidential funds earmarked for the Office of the Vice President and when she was education secretary, including P125 million which the OVP spent in just 11 days in 2022.

Meanwhile, Presidential Adviser on Poverty Alleviation Larry Gadon reiterated his call for Duterte to resign out of delicadeza and not wait to be impeached.

Gadon censured the Vice President for saying that her office used the confidential funds in “relation to national security and poverty alleviation.”

“Those are duplications of the work of other government agencies,” Gadon said. “Besides, those are not the duties of the VP. Her function is to assist the President in his duties, not to duplicate the government agencies’ programs.”

Gadon said Duterte should explain the 1,322 recipients of the OVP funds who have no birth records with the Philippine Statistics Authority.