The people have begun to view Sara Zimmerman Duterte for what she is – a do-nothing, divisive vice president and, as the ongoing impeachment trial gains momentum in the prosecution’s favor – abusive, violent and corrupt, one who has enriched herself during all the years she has been a public official.
As an elected official, Sara was trusted by the people with an enormous mandate – 32 million votes for VP in May 2022. If you fail people’s trust and expectations, that’s betrayal – betrayal of the public trust, under the Constitution, a ground for impeachment conviction and removal from office, permanently.
A survey conducted by OCTA Research July 2026 shows that for the first time since 2024, VP Duterte is no longer trusted by majority of the people; only 47 percent trust her now, a “significant eight-percentage-point decline from the 55-percent record in March 2026.” And only 45 percent, below majority, are satisfied with her performance, “a significant five-percentage-point decline from 50 percent in March 2026.”
Explains OCTA: Sara’s “trust and performance ratings have fallen below majority level together for only the second time in the available series – the first being November 2024, when both stood at 49 percent. This quarter’s ratings of 47 percent trust and 45 percent performance are the lowest yet recorded for her, surpassing even that earlier dip. It is the scale and timing of this decline, more than its rarity, that stand out.”
In November 2024, Sara announced on national TV she contracted assassin/s to kill President Marcos Jr., First Lady Louise Araneta Marcos and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez. At the impeachment court, the VP is accused of grave threats and sedition.
“The most direct explanation for (Sara’s) record decline is the impeachment trial itself,” notes OCTA. “The proceedings opened on July 6 to extensive live coverage across both broadcast and online platforms, with thousands of police deployed around the Senate and protesters gathering to call for her conviction – a level of sustained public and media attention rarely matched by other developments in this survey period. The opening was further amplified by the same-day arrest of a key Duterte ally, Sen. Rodante Marcoleta, which dominated both traditional news cycles and social media discussion in the days that followed. That her ratings crossed below majority in precisely the quarter this trial began, and by a wider margin than the previous such crossing in November 2024, makes the trial and its surrounding media environment the most direct and best-supported explanation among the factors considered here.”
“Other factors may have compounded this effect,” concedes OCTA, “though none can be isolated from this (July 2026) survey alone.” Says the usually reliable pollster:
“One is a growing perception, voiced increasingly by critics in Congress, that the Vice President has not done enough, given her limited formal portfolio during a period of economic difficulty. Some lawmakers have publicly questioned what the Office of the Vice President has accomplished, pointing to her relative absence from public statements on pressing issues such as West Philippine Sea tensions and disaster response.
“A second is the perception of corruption itself: the flood control fund scandal, the allegations of unexplained wealth and misused confidential funds at the center of the impeachment charges and the same-day arrest of Sen. Marcoleta may together have reinforced corruption-related concerns as a factor distinct from the trial’s media visibility alone.”
“Beyond these individual factors, the shape of the data itself points to a more structural reading that reinforces the trial as the central explanation,” points out OCTA.
“The decline is unusually uniform across socioeconomic class – Class ABC, D and E each fell by approximately nine points in trust – which is not the pattern one would expect if the cause were narrowly economic, since economic pressure this quarter fell more unevenly on lower-income groups.
“A decline this evenly spread across class lines is more consistent with a shared national event, such as the trial, than with a pocketbook-driven shift,” concludes OCTA.
A second major impeachment charge against Sara is unexplained wealth. She began public service in 2007-2009, three years as Davao City vice mayor; in 2010-2022, 12 years as mayor and from July 2022 to the present as the second highest elected official of the land.
Per her statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs), Duterte’s net worth increased 12-fold from P7.25 million in 2007 to P88.5 million despite the fact that during the 15 years til 2024, she earned no more than P43.2 million (P26 million according to records of the the House of Representatives that impeached her by a vote of 257 to 25 last May 11, 2026). If she earned only P26 million in 18 years, how come her net worth exploded to P88.6 million by 2024. Where did the P62.5-million difference come from? The implication is that Sara enriched herself as a public official.
Moreover, in suspicious transactions catalogued by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) involving the bank accounts, individual and corporate, of Sara and husband Manases Carpio, P6.771 billion were transacted during the 20-year period 2006 to 2025. Of the P6.771 billion, P3.772 billion – 56 percent – was traced to Sara’s bank accounts. She earned only P26 million in 18 years but monies totaling P3.773 billion flowed into her bank accounts, a whopping P3.747 billion difference.
More than 99.33 percent of monies that flowed into Sara’s bank accounts cannot be accounted for by her legitimate earnings. How do you explain that? Pending explanation, the P3.747 billion is considered unexplained wealth. Under the law, unexplained wealth is corruption and the government can seize the money, the P3.747 billion.
Under the Constitution, the vice president is not allowed to engage in business.
To clear up Sara’s finances, the Senate, as an impeachment court, has directed the Bureau of Internal Revenue to produce her tax records, the AMLC to produce her financial records and those of her husband and the ombudsman to produce Sara’s SALNs.
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