Vice President Sara Duterte speaks during a press conference at her office in Manila on December 11, 2024. Philippine lawmakers on February 5, 2025 voted to send articles of impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte to the Senate, a day before the current congressional session was set to end. (Photo by TED ALJIBE / AFP)
MANILA, Philippines 鈥� House lawmakers supportive of Vice President Sara Duterte鈥檚 impeachment will help the prosecution team prepare and educate the people about why the process is necessary if the trial remains delayed, a legislator said on Tuesday.
Assistant Majority Leader and Tingog party-list Rep. Jude Acidre admitted in a press briefing that they have no other option as the proverbial ball on the impeachment proceedings is now with the Senate, as the House of Representatives has finished its task of sending the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate.
鈥淔or us, our choice is only to prepare well for our prosecutors. As of now, the pre-trial preparations on the part of the prosecution is the best way to go for us, but we are also happy to see that there are steps taken by ordinary Filipinos, like the people鈥檚 impeachment calls made earlier,鈥� he said in Filipino.
鈥淚 hope this becomes an avenue to relay to the people, to ordinary Filipinos to study the importance and merits of the impeachment case that will be tackled at the Senate trial.聽 So I think if the Senate would not start a trial immediately, I think for many of us in the House and with many more advocates, we would bring the discussions to the people,鈥� he added.
According to Acidre, there are many ways of making the people informed about the impeachment procedures aside from staging rallies.
He said the signature campaign launched by religious groups and other non-government organizations calling for the immediate start of the impeachment trial is 鈥渁 good way to show the Senate what is the true sentiment of our people.鈥�
鈥淢any schools are conducting forums about the impeachment; that is an important step as we can explain to the people the matter, which would allow them to have a deeper understanding of these issues,鈥� he added.
Duterte was impeached after 215 House of Representatives members filed and verified a fourth impeachment complaint, citing several issues like alleged misuse of confidential funds lodged within her offices, threats to ranking officials including President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and conduct unbecoming of a Vice President.
READ: House impeaches VP Sara Duterte, fast-tracking transmittal to Senate
Under the 1987 Constitution, a trial should start forthwith if at least one-third of all House members 鈥� in this case, 102 out of 306 鈥斅犅爃ave signed and endorsed the petition.
Trial however has yet to start because the Senate did not discuss the Articles of Impeachment at the plenary聽 before the session adjourned on February 5.
Recently, Senate President Francis Escudero said that the trial would start on July 30 with the new set of lawmakers sitting as senator-judges.
READ: Escudero bares proposed calendar of Sara Duterte impeachment trial
There have been concerns, however, with the trial being set as late as July. Acidre said Duterte would benefit the most from the delay as it may be indicative of a culture of impunity, where observations made by different House committees are not given much weight.
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 鈥� one for OVP and another for the DepEd 鈥� 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
Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua, a member of the prosecution team, also warned about the possibility that evidence crucial to the impeachment case may be tampered with, while witnesses may be threatened if trial continues to be delayed.