Vice-President Sara Duterte speaks to the media at the Batasan Pambansa in Quezon City on November 25, 2024, while the hearing on alleged irregularities in the use of confidential funds by the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education is suspended. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN NewsMANILA — Vice President Sara Duterte is facing two impeachment complaints over the allegedly irregular use of government funds, with a third one reportedly being readied for filing next week.

Impeachment, a process for accountability enshrined in the Constitution, has, however, been met with resistance from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and will be racing against time as the 19th Congress winds down its business.

"I’m sorry to admit that, pero medyo tight (it is a little tight)," Bukidnon 2nd District Rep. Jonathan Keith Flores, vice chair of the House Committee on Justice that will be tasked with evaluating the complaints, told Teleradyo Serbisyo on Saturday.

Bills that are not approved in the 19th Congress will have to refiled at the 20th Congress in 2025 but, Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero pointed out earlier this week, it is unclear how an impeachment complaint — or a trial at the Senate — left pending after elections change the composition of the House and Senate will be handled.

Third impeachment complaint against Sara Duterte looms

Members of the Makabayan bloc at the House, who endorsed the second impeachment complaint against Duterte last Wednesday, have said they are working to gather the signatures of 106 representatives — one third of the 318-member House — to send the complaint to the Senate for trial without the justice panel having to hold hearings.

Duterte has repeatedly denied any misuse of funds and has attributed scrutiny of her office's spending to an attempt to discredit her ahead of the 2028 presidential elections and to distract from the government's alleged failures.

“Well, they can always try na mag-impeachment. They can always gumastos at magwaldas ng pera ng gobyerno para i-impeach ang vice president kung 'yan ba naman 'yung gusto nila," she said in late November.

(Well, they can always try for an impeachment. They can always spend and waste government money to impeach the vice president if that is what they want.) 

THE IMPEACHMENT COMPLAINTS FILED SO FAR

The first impeachment complaint, endorsed by Akbayan Party-List Rep. Perci Cendaña, accuses Vice President Duterte of "culpable violations of the Constitution, graft and corruption, bribery, betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes," the grounds for impeachment laid out in the Constitution.

Specifically, complainants said she had failed to properly account for P125 million in confidential funds allocated to the Office of the Vice President in 2022 and left behind P7 billion in unliquidated cash advances from her tenure as education secretary.

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Former peace adviser Teresita Quintos Deles, priests Fr. Flaviano Villanueva, SVD and Fr. Robert Reyes, Randy Delos Santos — uncle of drug war victim Kian Delos Santos — and political science lecturer Francis Aquino Dee and other complainants also said that Duterte's refusal to participate in budget hearings violated the constitutional system of checks and balances in government.

"Public office is not a throne of privilege; it is a position of trust. Sara Duterte has desecrated that trust with her blatant abuses of power," former Sen. Leila De Lima, their spokesperson, said.

The second complaint, led by national democratic activist organization Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, is centered on betrayal of public trust over the confidential funds.

"Puwede naman kaming magdagdag ng marami pa, pero the betrayal of public trust, it encompasses everything," lawyer Neri Colmenares, Bayan Muna chairperson and among the 70 complainants, said Wednesday.

(We can add more but the betrayal of public trust encompasses everything.) 

House Secretary General Reginald Velasco told reporters last week that some lawmakers had told him they are considering filing their own complaint or endorsing a fresh one.

"Kaya on hold kami dito, nag-iintay kami…Malalaman natin next week kung itutuloy nila ‘yung complaint na ifa-file nila," he said.

(That's why we're on hold right now, we're waiting. We'll know next week if they'll push through with the complaint) 

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POLITICAL HEADWINDS

Marcos Jr. has gone on record to say he does not think an impeachment will "make a difference to even one single Filipino life" and would be a waste of time.

Following the President's cue, the National Security Council this week called the Bayan impeachment complaint "political opportunism and (for) political mileage."

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Religious group Iglesia ni Cristo, which endorsed Marcos Jr. and Duterte in the 2022 elections, has also announced plans for rallies to oppose impeachment proceedings.

Some senators, including former Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, have expressed hesitation at a potential impeachment trial, saying it would be divisive.

“Is this what we want so close to the elections?” he told media this week.

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Senate President Escudero has since cautioned members against talking about a potential impeachment trial, adding that if it does come, it is "crucial that members of the Senate approach it with the impartiality and objectivity demanded of us."

In the meantime, supporters on either side of the former UniTeam have taken turns trooping to historic Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue as a show of force while lawmakers try to balance the potential impeachment with other duties and with preparations for the 2025 elections.

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"In fact, karamihan ng mga kongresista, bumabalik na rin sa mga distrito nila. Magki-Christmas na, so nagpapakita na rin sa mga distrito," Flores said Saturday.

(In fact, many of the House members have headed back to their districts. It's almost Christmas, so they are with their districts.) — from reporting by RG Cruz, Bianca Dava, Ched Rick Gatchalian, Vivienne Gulla, and Jauhn Etienne Villaruel, ABS-CBN News

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