IMPEACHMENT COMPLAINT FILED VS VP SARA

CIVIL society groups on Monday filed an impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte at the House of Representatives.

The complaint was filed in the Secretary General’s Office at the House of Representatives by civil society organizations, religious leaders, sectoral representatives, and families of victims of extrajudicial killings.

It was endorsed in the House by Akbayan Party-list Rep. Perci Cendaña and officially received by House Secretary General Reginald Velasco at 4:30 p.m. Monday.

The complainants cited culpable violation of the constitution, graft and corruption, bribery, betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes as grounds for impeachment.

Among the complainants include former peace adviser Teresita Quintos Deles, Fr. Flaviano Villanueva, former Magdalo Party-list representative Gary Alejano and families of the drug war victims during the previous administration.

They were accompanied by former senator Leila De Lima, who served as their spokesperson.

“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. This impeachment is not just a legal battle but a moral crusade to restore dignity and decency to public service,” De Lima said in a statement.

According to De Lima, there were 16 signatories in the complaint.

Meanwhile, Cendaña called the filing of the impeachment complaint a “critical juncture” in the country’s pursuit of accountability.

“Today, I formally endorse the first-ever and historic impeachment complaint filed by our citizens against Vice President Sara Duterte. This moment marks a critical juncture in our nation’s demand for accountability. I stand in full support of the brave citizens calling for Duterte to answer for her blatant violations of the constitution, egregious corruption, and complicity in mass murder,” Cendaña said.

According to Cendaña, Duterte deserves to be impeached for her alleged abuse of power and plunder of the nation’s coffers. He also said that the country must not allow the Duterte family’s “legacy of corruption and mass murder to persist unchallenged.”

The complaint against the Vice President details 24 articles of impeachment, including the misuse of billions of pesos in confidential funds during her tenure as Davao City mayor and Vice President, failure to account for substantial government budgets, and refusal to attend congressional hearings.

The complaint also alleged Duterte’s failure to properly account for P125 million in confidential funds in 2022 and additional unaccounted P650 million in 2023 for the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and during her tenure as secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd).

Also mentioned in the complaint was the alleged “rigged” bidding for DepEd equipment and over P15 billion in unused funds in 2023.

VP Sara also faced accusations of bribery and unexplained wealth, with claims that she accumulated P111 million in personal accounts and hundreds of millions more in joint accounts with her father.

She is accused of betraying public trust by abandoning her duties during Typhoon Carina in July and failing to address Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea.

Other charges include her issuing threats against high-ranking officials.

Earlier, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. urged lawmakers not to file an impeachment complaint versus VP Sara as it is not that important and just a waste of time.

But Makabayan lawmakers — ACT Teachers Party-List Rep. France Castro, Gabriela Party-List Rep. Arlene Brosas and Kabataan Party-List Rep. Raoul Manuel — said they are for impeachment proceedings, which they said are what the times and the public call for.

They said the Vice President has to be held accountable for the issue of confidential funds and other anomalies at the OVP and the DepEd.

The Makabayan solons said the impeachment complaint is about transparency and accountability and not something that can be negotiated or dictated.