Impeaching Sara

There are several intriguing points in the unprecedented impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte.

One is that the first signatory in the impeachment complaint is the son of President Marcos, Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos. Did the father give his blessings to the son?

What happened to BBM’s original stand last November that the VP “does not deserve to be impeached,” and text messages discouraging House allies from the impeachment? It gradually softened to the clarification that BBM was not blocking the impeachment, and the latest last Monday, that he would not intervene in the congressional proceedings.

Yesterday, BBM said over and over, in various permutations, that he had nothing to do with the impeachment, that his allies were not the ones who filed the complaints so his public stand against it was not defied, but now that it has happened, the process must be respected and allowed to take its course.

Just recently, Sandro Marcos had also initiated the unceremonious ouster of Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Zaldy Co as chairman of the powerful House appropriations committee. The panel together with Speaker Martin Romualdez and the Senate finance committee chaired by Grace Poe are widely believed to have spearheaded the mangling in aid of election of the “pork” and patronage-packed 2025 budget designed to perpetuate an ayuda economy.

Another intriguing point is that the Senate is in no rush to conduct the impeachment trial, preferring instead to allow the new members of the chamber in the incoming 20th Congress to render judgment.

Yesterday, Senate President Francis Escudero announced that given the time constraints, the current Senate can start the formal impeachment trial only when session resumes on June 2.

He pointed out that the House sat for two months on the impeachment complaints, and then tossed the consolidated complaint to the Senate barely two hours before adjournment of the session. Why should senators be rushed, while congressmen make full use of the next two-and-a-half months for the election campaign?

This means the trial will be picked up by the incoming batch of senators in the 20th Congress, presumably with more pro-impeachment members sitting in judgment. There’s speculation that this is in fact the game plan of Marcos 2.0.

From the start, the biggest question in the effort to oust the VP by impeachment was whether there would be enough votes in the Senate.

Based on public pronouncements of the senators, the guessing was that nine of them – enough to junk the impeachment – would vote against. They are Duterte diehards Ronald dela Rosa and Bong Go, VP Sara’s avowed BFF Imee Marcos, Robinhood Padilla, Jinggoy Estrada and his half-brother J.V. Ejercito, Joel Villanueva, Francis Tolentino and Cynthia Villar.

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Also noteworthy is that the impeachment was an overwhelming congressional rebuff of the Iglesia Ni Cristo, a sect with a reputation for voting as a bloc. The INC flexed its muscles last month in support of VP Sara. Out of 306 members of the House, however, over two-thirds led by BBM’s son signed the Articles of Impeachment.

The INC rally was publicly denounced by BBM’s chief legal counsel, Juan Ponce Enrile, as “political pressure to hinder a separate and independent department of the government to perform a constitutional duty.” Was that BBM’s stand?

It wasn’t the first time though that the INC was rebuffed by the government. The INC also came out strongly in support of Joseph Estrada when he was impeached as president, and then for Renato Corona who was convicted and ousted as chief justice when Enrile was the presiding officer of the impeachment court.

Pro-impeachment groups have pointed out that in assessing the public pulse, surveys by reputable pollsters are a more accurate gauge rather than warm bodies at religious rallies.

Another intriguing point was the surge of interest among congressmen to sign up for the impeachment. As of yesterday afternoon, the 215 signatories had reportedly risen to about 240, with the additional signatures to be included in a supplemental document. What might have been the incentive that wasn’t there last December?

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Asked about Escudero’s calendar for the trial, BBM said he would call a special session of the Senate – if Escudero asked for it. And round and round it went.

Escudero raised a tantalizing detail – that an impeached official who resigns before conviction would not be permanently barred from holding public office. This, he said, was what Merceditas Gutierrez did when she was impeached as ombudsman.

Escaping ouster by impeachment allowed Gutierrez to retire in peace with all her benefits intact, and even to sit later as a board trustee of the Government Service Insurance System.

If the impeachment trial waits until June 2, it gives VP Sara four months to discern whether she should fight impeachment, or if she should quit as VP before the trial and instead prepare for a bigger fight, for the presidency in 2028.

Certain quarters, however, argue that even if she resigns, the trial should proceed on some of the Articles of Impeachment. She may also face criminal prosecution before regular courts and be permanently barred from public office if convicted.

One thing is certain: the impeachment has diverted attention from rice prices that refuse to go down, and from the institutionalized thievery of people’s money by Congress in the national budget for 2025. If the Senate proceeds with the trial ASAP instead of deferring it to June or the next Congress, the diversion will last throughout the election campaign.

With little left to lose, the Dutertes and their minions can continue harping on these issues, continuing to be a thorn in the side of the administration. Sara Duterte and her relatives can aim to get even instead of simply getting mad.