A LAWMAKER from the House militant bloc yesterday said the plan of some quarters to file a fourth impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte will strengthen moves to oust the country’s second highest elected official because the complaint will have the support of members of the House majority coalition.
“We welcome this fourth impeachment complaint. Its difference from the complaints filed earlier is it has the substantial support of the majority coalition,” Rep. France Castro (PL, ACT) said in mixed English and Filipino.
House Secretary General Reginald Velasco last week said a group of administration congressmen have told him that they were considering either endorsing one of the three impeachment complaints previously filed by various cause-oriented groups, or filing another complaint, which could be filed today.
A House source said word going around is that the group of administration lawmakers calling themselves “Young Guns” are the ones who will file the fourth complaint.
Castro, a member of the left-leaning Makabayan bloc, said that while the exact details of the fourth complaint remains unclear, around 10-12 representatives are reportedly ready to endorse it.
She said this development could indicate “growing dissatisfaction with the Vice President’s performance and spending controversies.”
“This level of support is not ordinary. It reflects serious concerns about VP Sara’s actions and use of confidential funds,” she also said adding that while it is yet unknown who will file the fourth complaint, what is important is the “unprecedented support of our colleagues in Congress.”
“We await tomorrow’s (today’s) filing and hope this leads to a faster processing of impeachment complaints against the Vice President. The allegations have to be thoroughly studied and justice should be served to the people),” she added.
Castro earlier urged Office of the Secretary General to act on the complaints filed last month by referring those to the Office of the Speaker when Congress resumes session on January 13.
The Makabayan bloc has launched a campaign to gather the number of signatures required by the Constitution to automatically send the impeachment complaints to the Senate for trial.
Since there are 307 House members, they will need the signatures of at least 103 congressmen to shorten the impeachment process by constituting the Articles of Impeachment and sending it to the Senate which will convene as an impeachment court.
Without meeting the constitutional requirement, the complaints will have to be referred to the House Committee on Justice which will vote to determine if the complaint is sufficient in form and substance.
All the complaints are expected to be consolidated before the plenary refers it to the committee on justice.
Once approved by the plenary, the Vice President is considered impeached and only then can the complaint will be brought to the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, for trial.
The first impeachment complaint was filed on December 2 by civil society and religious organizations led by Akbayan party-list and endorsed by Rep. Percival Cendaña. It accuses the Vice President of culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, bribery, betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes.
The complaint said the Vice President committed culpable violation of the Constitution and graft and corruption when she “failed to properly account for the P125 million in confidential and intelligence (CIF) funds given to the Office of the Vice President (OVP) in 2022.”
Citing the OVP’s liquidation report and accomplishment report, the complaint stressed that the fund was “shockingly” spent in a only 11 days, from Dec. 21 to 31, 2022, the same issue being investigated by the House Committee on Good Government based on the findings of the Commission on Audit, which has disallowed P73 million out of the P125 million.
The complaint said Duterte, instead of answering the House Committee on Appropriations during its budget hearings last September, “resorted to personal attacks against critics, red-tagging and blanket denial of allegations that the funds have been spent inappropriately.” It also cited Duterte’s “refusal” to account for the P500 million CIF that the received in 2023 and the P150 million CIF for the same year, when she was still concurrent education secretary. Out of the P500 million, the OVP disbursed P125 million for each of the three quarters of 2023 or a total of P375 million since it no longer used the remaining P125 million for the fourth quarter.
The second complaint was filed just two days later by 72 individuals led by members of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), which cited only one ground — betrayal of public trust — anchored on the same acts cited by the Akbayan complaint. It was endorsed by Castro and fellow Makabayan bloc members Reps. Arlene Brosas (PL, Gabriela) and Raoul Manuel (PL, Kabataan).
The third complaint was filed on December 19 by religious groups and lawyers also accusing Duterte of willfully misusing public funds by fabricating the recipients of a total of P612.5 million in confidential funds disbursed by the OVP and the Department of Education (DepEd) which she used to head as concurrent education secretary.
The group, represented by lawyer Amando Virgil Ligutan, accused the Vice President of culpable violation of the Constitution, bribery, graft and corruption, and betrayal of public trust.
A total of 1,322 individuals out of the 1,992 names listed as recipients of the OVP’s P500 million confidential funds have no birth records, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has told the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability which has been looking into the issues hounding the Vice President.
The PSA has also told the panel chaired by Manila Rep. Joel Chua that 405 out of the 677 names listed as beneficiaries of the Department of Education’s (DepEd) P112.5 million confidential funds during Vice President Sara Duterte’s term as education secretary also have no birth records.
The latest impeachment complaint against Duterte was endorsed by Reps. Gabriel Bordado Jr. of Camarines Sur and Lex Colada (PL, AAMBIS-OWA), who are both members of the House minority bloc.
