VP Sara Duterte benefits from delayed impeachment trial 鈥� Acidre
Vice President Sara Duterte speaks to the members of the media and answers questions during a press conference at OVP Central Office in Mandaluyong City on Friday, February 7, 2025. Arnel Tacson, 黑料社
MANILA, Philippines — It is Vice President Sara Duterte who benefits from the continuous delay in the impeachment proceedings, Assistant Majority Leader and Tingog party-list Rep. Jude Acidre said on Tuesday.
In a press briefing, Acidre said with the Senate still adamant that the trial would start in the 20th Congress, the most critical question to ask is, “who benefits from this delay?”
Acidre said Duterte would benefit the most as there seems to be a culture of impunity, where observations made by the House of Representatives committee are not given much weight.
“We can see here how important it is for our respected senators to pursue justice and truth after these events,” he said.
“And I think, to be honest, the one who benefits from this is the person in question, of course, the Vice President, because while we continue to delay hearing the impeachment trial, there would be an increasing sense of impunity, that it seems the crimes and shortcomings that we saw with the Department of Education and the Office of the Vice President are not being taken seriously,” he added.
Article continues after this advertisementAcidre said that the old adage “justice delayed is justice denied” can describe the current situation.
Article continues after this advertisement“For the part of the House, we have already spent a lot of time investigating the turn of events at the [committee on] good government, even with the quad committee,” he said.
“And just like what Cong. Pammy [Zamora] said, while we continue to delay hearing the impeachment case, a lot of questions remain unanswered and there is no clarity to the issues discussed at the good government [committee],” he added.
In September 2024, the House committee on good government and public accountability started the hearing on fund use anomalies involving the Department of Education (DepEd) under Duterte and the Office of the Vice President (OVP).
The committee found several glaring concerns, like a high likelihood that fake identities were used in signing the acknowledgment receipts (ARs) for confidential fund (CF) disbursements.
At one point, Antipolo 2nd District Rep. Romeo Acop said the name Mary Grace Piattos, which was used to sign off the ARs, bears a first name similar to a coffee shop, and a surname that is a famous potato chip brand.
Later on, Lanao del Sur 1st District Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong showed two more ARs — one for OVP and another for the DepEd — which were both received by a certain Kokoy Villamin. However, the signatures and handwriting of Villamin differed.
READ: House probe: OVP, DepEd CFs received by same man, different signatures
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) eventually said that they have no records of Piattos and Villamin within their live birth, marriage, and death registry.
After these revelations and other actions taken by Duterte, 215 House members filed and verified a fourth impeachment complaint.
Under the 1987 Constitution, a trial should start “forthwith” if at least one-third of all House of Representatives members — in this case, 102 out of 306 — have signed and endorsed the petition.
READ: House impeaches VP Sara Duterte, fast-tracking transmittal to Senate
The trial, however, has yet to start because the petition transmitted to the Senate was not brought to the plenary before the session adjourned.
Senate President Francis Escudero said the trial would start by July 30, with the new set of lawmakers sitting as senator-judges.
READ: Escudero bares proposed calendar of Sara Duterte impeachment trial
Members of the House’s prosecution team, like Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua, however, raised concerns about the possibility of evidence crucial to the impeachment case being tampered with and witnesses being threatened if the trial continues to be delayed.
Earlier, Acidre and Taguig 2nd District Rep. Amparo Maria Zamora admitted that while they respect the Senate’s timetable for the impeachment trial, they are already sounding like a “broken record” when it comes to insisting that proceedings should start forthwith.
They said starting the trial in June or July would be too late and would run contrary to the 1987 Constitution’s definition.
