With a total of 215 out of 306 votes, the House of Representatives signed on the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte on Feb. 5, making her the first vice president in Philippine history to face an impeachment trial.
More than two-thirds of the House voted in favor of the fourth impeachment complaint filed on the same day, far surpassing the 103 votes required to send the case to the Senate.
The latest complaint, which stands apart from the three previous raps, shared similar grounds of fund misuse, graft, and betrayal of public trust due to Duterte’s controversial spending of confidential funds.
Two of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s relatives bookended the list of solons who signed the complaint: Senior Deputy Majority Leader Sandro Marcos at the top and House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez at the bottom.
President Marcos Jr. earlier discouraged lawmakers and representatives from pushing for Duterte’s impeachment, highlighting that it was “not important.”
The following members of the House will serve as prosecutors in Duterte’s impeachment trial:
- Rep. Gerville Luistro
- Rep. Romeo Acop
- Rep. Rodge Gutierrez
- Rep. Joel Chua
- Rep. Raul Angelo Bongalon
- Rep. Loreto Acharon
- Rep. Marcelino Libanan
- Rep. Arnan Panaligan
- Rep. Isabelle Maria Zamora
- Rep. Lorenz Defensor
- Rep. Jonathan Keith Flores
Acop, Luistro, and Gutierrez were among the prominent legislators in the previous House quad committee hearings that tackled the controversies during the administration of former president Rodrigo Duterte.
Chua chaired the House Blue Ribbon Committee, which spearheaded the congressional inquiries into the Duterte scion’s alleged misuse of her confidential funds as vice president and former education secretary.
In an interview, the vice president noted the need to wait for the House’s official statement regarding her impeachment.
“Mahirap mag-react kung hindi natin nababasa kung ano ‘yung official statement nila. Baka masobrahan o magkulang ‘yung reaction. So, kailangan natin antayin,” Duterte said.
(It’s difficult to react without reading their official statement. The reaction may be too much or too little. So, we have to wait.)
A step towards ‘full accountability’
With Akbayan Rep. Percival Cendaña acting as the endorser of the first complaint, the partylist said Duterte’s impeachment is a “testament to the power of active citizenship.”
Akbayan first nominee Atty. Chel Diokno urged the Senate to remain proactive all throughout the impeachment trial.
“The Senate must not falter. This is a moment of truth—will they stand with the people or enable the root of unaccountability? The country deserves a Senate that will not cower in the face of power,” he said.
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan president Renato Reyes Jr., one of the complainants in the second impeachment rap endorsed by the Makabayan bloc, lauded the House for “making this historic moment possible.”
“Let the impeachment trial be a venue to educate the public on the systemic corruption present in our government. Let the trial expose the abuses in the system of confidential funds. Let the people be active participants, not just mere spectators in the upcoming trial,” Reyes stated.
