Time to end nightmare, says complaint endorser
CIVIL society and religious organizations led by the Akbayan party-list group yesterday filed an impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte at the House of Representatives, saying the second highest elected official of the land has to be held accountable for culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, bribery, betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes.
The complaint, the first against Duterte, was filed despite President Marcos Jr.’s call for lawmakers to refrain from impeaching the Vice President despite even after she threatened to have him killed along with his wife First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and cousin Speaker Martin Romualdez.
The Office of the Vice President said requests for comment had been relayed to Duterte.
The 33-page complaint, which was also signed by sectoral representatives and families of victims of extrajudicial killings (EJKs), was received by Secretary General Reginald Velasco and endorsed by Rep. Percival Cendaña (PL, Akbayan).
“Panahon na para isara ng taongbayan ang bangungot na dulot ni Sara (It’s time to put end to the nightmare brought about by Sara). Vice President Duterte deserves to be impeached for her abuse of power and plunder of the nation’s coffers. The Filipino people deserve a vice president who is ethical, accountable, and committed to public service, not one who weaponizes authority for personal gain,” Cendaña said.
He added: “Our country must not allow the Duterte family’s legacy of corruption and mass murder to persist unchallenged. The entrenched culture of impunity and graft will only be dismantled when those who perpetuate and profit from it are held to account. This impeachment complaint is but a first step. It must inspire and pave the way for further efforts to bring the Dutertes and their allies before the altar of justice.”
The individual complainants are Teresita Deles, former presidential adviser on the peace process; Randy Delos Santos, uncle of EJK victim Kian Delos Santos; Fr. Flaviano Villanueva, of the Society of the Divine Word; activist priest Fr. Robert Reyes; former Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano; singer Leah Navarro; Sisters Susan Santos and Mary Grace De Guzman; Francis Joseph Dee; Eugene Gonzales; Sylvia Estrada Claudio; Alicia Murphy; Rowena Amon; Filomena Cinco; Ma. Yvonne Christina Jereza.
Former Sen. Leila De Lima, who accompanied the group in filing the complaint, said she is not among the complainants but their designated spokesperson, being a member of the opposition Liberal Party and its sectoral arm “Mamamayang Liberal” whose members are also among the complainants.
ACCOUNTABILITY
De Lima, who was jailed for almost seven years on trumped-up drug charges under the previous administration, said the group filed the complaint despite the President Marcos’ appeal because it does not affect their “desire to make the Vice President accountable.”
“We don’t consider such things. We don’t want to be perceived as favoring the political protagonists now. It’s really the decision of the individuals to file,” she told reporters.
“This impeachment is not just a legal battle but a moral crusade to restore dignity and decency to public service,” she also said.
“The Vice President has reduced public office to a platform for violent rhetoric, personal enrichment, elitist entitlement and a shield for impunity,” Quintos Deles.
Cendaña said they filed the complaint “because our loyalty is with the people and the forces that want to hold the Vice President accountable cannot be dictated upon.”
“We are bravely supporting the citizens and we believe that it is the House’s responsibility to give it a chance and a fair day in court. Kung hindi ngayon, kailan? (If not now, when?)” he said.
Cendaña also said the complaint was filed even if there seems to be no more material time left for the 19th Congress to launch impeachment proceeding. He said the House leadership can always find a way to have it tackled if it decides to.
Congress only has until December 18 before it adjourns session for the Christmas break. When session resumes in January, there will only be a few weeks left before the official campaign period for the 2025 midterm elections kicks off in February.
“If there’s a will, there’s a way to hold those who abused power and stole from the country’s coffers,” he said.
The vote of at least one-third of all members of the House of Representatives is needed to approve the Articles of Impeachment and transmit the complaint to the Senate, assuming it is approved and referred to it by the House Committee on Justice which will vote to determine if the complaint is sufficient in form and substance.
Once approved by the plenary, the Vice President is considered impeached and the complaint will be brought to the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, for trial.
The Constitution bars the initiation of more than one impeachment complaint against an impeachable official within the same year but the House may consolidate all complaints before referring it to the justice panel, the point when a complaint is deemed “initiated.”
Cendaña expressed belief that lawmakers will eventually support the complaint once they see its “strong merits.”
GROUNDS
The five grounds for impeachment cited by the complaint — culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, bribery, betrayal of public trust and other high crimes — are based on specific allegations against the Vice President.
The complaint said the Vice President committed culpable violation of the Constitution and graft and corruption when she “failed to properly account for P125 million in confidential and intelligence (CIF) funds given to the Office of the Vice President (OVP) in 2022.”
Citing the OVP’s liquidation and accomplishment reports, 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 (COA), 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.”
The complaint also cited Duterte’s “refusal” to account for the P500 million CIF that the OVP 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.
DISRESPECT
The complaint said the Vice President’s “adamant refusal” to answer questions about the OVP’s handling of its budget and her refusal to attend plenary deliberations on her office’s P2 billion proposed budget for 2025 “clearly amount to her open display of her defiance and disrespect of the budget process and the system of checks and balance built into the Constitution, for which she can likewise be impeached as the same is clearly tantamount not only to her betrayal of public trust but likewise culpable violation of the Constitution.”
It also accused the Vice President of “squandering” a total of P2.735 billion in CIF during her three terms as mayor of Davao City, from 2010 to 2013, 2016 to 2019 and 2019 to 2022.
It rebuked the Vice President for having tried to request for the another P500 million CIF for the OVP’s budget for Fiscal Year 2024 and P150 million for the DepEd.
“Under the law, this unnecessary, wasteful, inefficient and ineffective use of public funds by the respondent, which she in fact publicly admitted, is actually a form of graft and corruption,” the complaint said.
Other violations, the complaint said, is the fact that the Vice President has left the DepEd with more than P12 billion in disallowances, suspensions and charges based on COA findings.
It said Duterte left the department with P7 billion in unliquidated cash advances on top of the alleged rigged bidding for laptops. It also cited allegations that Duterte was engaged in bribery when she allegedly distributed cash gifts to DepEd officials.
The complaint also cited Sen. Antinio Trillanes IV’s allegations about her unexplained receipts of hundreds of millions of funds from drug personalities, and her coddling and acting as enabler of pastor Apollo Quiboloy who is now in jail for charges of qualified human trafficking and child and sexual abuse. – With Reuters
