Intended as the final nail on the coffin of the political plans to run in the May 2028 presidential elections, the House justice committee approved unanimously the four Articles of Impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte. A day after the House justice committee vote came out, the results of a Pulse Asia survey on Filipino voters’ preference of presidential and vice presidential candidates for the May 2028 also came out.
As expected, VP Sara continues to be the frontrunning presidential candidate. She, however, will face a competitive presidential field in 2028 if she runs head-to-head with either Sen. Raffy Tulfo or Naga City Mayor Leni Robredo. This was according to the latest commissioned survey by Pulse Asia.
Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri admitted he personally paid for this ‘rider question’ in the regular first quarter Pulse Asia survey-taking done from Feb. 27 to March 2. Zubiri underscored the need ‘to read the political landscape’ on the kind of leadership the people are looking for with the May 2028 polls just around the corner.
VP Sara had earlier announced her intention to run for president. Tulfo and Robredo both demurred. Each claimed that he, and she, respectively, is busy and not preoccupied with thinking about running for higher elective office.
When she first quit as concurrent Department of Education (DepEd) secretary in July 2024, VP Sara publicly surmised the accusations on her misuse of confidential funds were all politically-motivated. VP Sara directly accused former speaker Martin Romualdez and his allies were out to thwart her perceived May 2028 presidential run.
And the rest, as we say, is history when the Romualdez-led House carried out their first attempt to impeach her in December 2024, which succeeded in reaching the Senate of the defunct 19th Congress. Submitted on the eve before they went on congressional recess for the May 2025 mid-term elections, then president Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero did not acknowledge its receipt in their order of business that night. Thus, Escudero came under severe criticisms for not acting ‘forthwith,’ the mandate of our country’s 1987 Constitution to act on the House transmittal of the impeachment complaint.
The Escudero-led Senate finally convened the impeachment court when they resumed session in June last year. But on July 25 of the same year, the SC declared the Articles of Impeachment against VP Sara as unconstitutional. Acting on the petitions of VP Sara and her lawyers, the SC upheld their contention that it violated, among others, the one-year bar on impeachment complaint under Article XI, Section 3(5) of the Constitution.
‘The impeachment process is primarily a legal and constitutional procedure but with political characteristics. It may be sui generis but it is not a purely political proceeding. This means that the Bill of Rights, especially the due process clause and the right to speedy disposition of cases, applies to the entire impeachment process,’ the SC ruled.
Despite House petitions to reverse its original ruling, the SC affirmed with finality its decision on Jan. 29 this year, clarifying they have not cleared the impeachable official on her alleged offenses. Before the one-year bar could take effect, original and new complainants tried to beat one another in filing new impeachment cases against VP Sara.
Déjà vu. The House justice committee – as expected – approved expanded versions of four ‘articles of impeachment’ against VP Sara. These were, as follows:
(1) misuse or abuse of P612.5 million in confidential funds from the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and DepEd;
(2) unexplained wealth and failure to properly disclose assets in her statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN);
(3) bribery and graft and corruption of DepEd subordinates using cash envelopes and
(4) grave threats involving an alleged plot against President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. (PBBM) and his wife, First Lady Liza Araneta, and presidential first cousin former speaker and Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez.
The approved House justice committee report will now be transformed into a House resolution. This will be formally submitted for voting in plenary session before the entire House of Representatives next Monday.
But before any voting takes place, the House justice committee report containing the new articles of impeachment against VP Sara will be subjected to debate on the floor. The results of the voting will determine if the impeachment complaint will be transmitted to the Senate.
Our country’s 1987 Constitution requires one-third of the House membership for an impeachable official to go through the Senate as the impeachment court. This means at least 106 votes out of the incumbent House members of the present Congress. The Lower Chamber has a total of 318 members, less one following the demise of Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop in December last year.
If the 55-man House justice committee voted unanimously, then they only need 51 more congressmen to ensure the complaints against VP Sara will be transmitted to the Senate as the impeachment court.
The botched impeachment bid on VP Sara had 215 out of 306 congressmen signing the complaint.
The final rites on this new impeachment complaint against VP Sara will be done by the House next Monday.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III has consistently asserted he will not dilly-dally and will act ‘forthwith’ on any impeachment complaint that may reach them. ‘Once we receive it, we will convene the following day as an impeachment court,’ Sotto vowed.
In a seeming postscript of the first attempt to impeach VP Sara, it was only last week that the High Court belatedly upheld the independence of the Senate to determine the timing of acting ‘forthwith’ on an impeachment complaint.
Like the previous ouster bid on her, VP Sara and her battery of lawyers have filed new petitions before the High Court to stop the latest impeachment case. As expected, VP Sara raised alleged breaches again of her constitutional rights, including the right to not being barred from public office before she could even run in the next presidential election.