VICE President Sara Duterte yesterday said her defense team is confident of securing her acquittal in the upcoming impeachment trial at the Senate.
Duterte made the statement after dismissing allegations of some administration lawmakers she changed her mind about not making political endorsements to get the support of future senators who will be judges in the impeachment trial.
“My lawyers say they are more than confident that they will win in the impeachment case. Me, I am most confident with the lawyers working on my impeachment case,” she said in mixed Filipino and English in an interview with reporters in Danao City in Cebu.
The trial is expected to begin in July. Duterte was impeached on February 5. The Articles of Impeachment, transmitted by the House to the Senate on the same day, accuses Duterte of culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust, graft and corruption and other high crimes.
The younger Duterte, in September last year, said she will not endorse senatorial candidates.
Yesterday, she said she had to reconsider her stand after her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, was arrested and brought to The Hague in the Netherlands last month to face trial by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity.
She said her father asked her to campaign for the 10-man senatorial slate of his political party PDP-Laban which is led by reelectionist Senators Christopher “Bong Go” and Ronald dela Rosa.
She said her father told her, “‘I’m out, I can no longer campaign.’ So, he asked if I could campaign for his senatorial candidates… I told him, okay, since you’re not there in the Philippines, I can help,” she said.
Without mentioning her past alliance with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. who was her running mate in the 2022 national elections, the Vice President said she did not have a pleasant experience endorsing candidates in the past but things changed because of what happened to her father.
The vice president again defended her endorsement of the senatorial bids of reelectionist Sen. Imee Marcos and Las Piñas Rep. Camille Villar who is part of administration’s Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas senatorial slate, saying they are both her friends and the PDP-Laban lacks two candidates.
La Union Rep. Paolo Ortega V has said the political endorsements are no longer just about “principles or platforms, they’re about alliances, about survival,” while Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong said the vice president was obviously consolidating support.
The vice president said she has no plan to join campaign rallies for the PDP-Laban senatorial candidates but said they should hold a rally with Sen. Marcos, the President’s elder sister who has been dropped from the Alyansa ticket, and Villar.
She also said her brother, Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte, will be going to The Hague because their father’s common-law wife, Honeylet Avanceña, will soon have to return to the country. She said her sister, Veronica or “Kitty,” is already in the country to continue her studies.
