House endorses VP Sara articles of impeachment to Senate

The House of Representatives on Monday endorsed the Articles of Impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte to the Senate.

This developed after the House plenary approved, via voice vote, the motion put forward by Senior Deputy Majority Leader Lorenz Defensor of Iloilo endorsing the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate.

The House also endorsed the Resolution setting forth the Articles of Impeachment pursuant to the Rules of the House on Impeachment proceedings, as well as ordering the House Secretary General to prepare and transmit the same to the Senate for trial.

The Articles of Impeachment approved by the House for Senate action charge the Vice President of culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust, bribery, and other high crimes, based on the following acts:

a) systematic misuse, misappropriation, and irregular liquidation of confidential funds amounting to P500 million released to the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and P112.5 million released to the Department of Education (DepEd) during her tenure as Education chief

b) amassing unexplained wealth manifestly disproportionate to her lawful income and earnings during her incumbency as a public official

c) failure to fully and truthfully disclose all her and her spouse's assets, liabilities, and net worth in her statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN) including in her SALN for the years 2022, 2023, and 2024;

d) failure to divest, and instead, willfully continued, all her business interests during her tenure as vice president for the years 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025

e) giving monetary gifts or payments to DepEd officials to induce the violation and circumvention of procurement and other related laws.

f) contracting for the assassination of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., First Lady Liza Marcos, and the former Speaker of the House and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, by making grave threats, and by actively inciting sedition against the republic.

Items a, e, and f constitute Articles 1, 3, and 4, while items b, c, and d are all subsections of Article 2 of the Articles of Impeachment.

Ahead of Defensor’s motion, the House voted in favor of the impeachment of Duterte with 257 yes votes, 25 no votes, and nine abstentions.

Article 11 Section 3.4 of the 1987 Constitution provides that “In case the verified complaint or resolution of impeachment is filed by at least one-third of all the Members of the House, the same shall constitute the Articles of Impeachment, and trial by the Senate shall forthwith proceed.”

The 257 yes votes cast on Monday in favor of the Vice President's impeachment exceeded the one-third threshold set by the Constitution.

House Senior Deputy Minority Leader Leila de Lima and Assistant Majority Leader Zia Adiong of Lanao del Sur said such a resounding yes vote is tantamount to a public's call for accountability and therefore, for the Senate to convene as a Senate impeachment court.

"First in Philippine history for a Vice President to be impeached twice. Patunay si VP Sara na hindi lahat ng naiiwang legasiya sa kasaysayan ay karangalan. The momentum for truth, the thrust for accountability is unstoppable,” de Lima said.

(VP Sara is proof that not all legacies are honorable.)

“Ang mahalagang balita ngayon ay hindi ang pagpapalit ng liderato sa Senado, kundi ang pagboto ng 257 na House Members pabor sa pagpapatuloy ng impeachment. Ang hamon at panawagan ngayon sa buong Senado, hindi lang sa bagong liderato, gampanan nila ang kanilang mandato at tungkulin sa Konstitusyon,” de Lima added, referring to Monday’s Senate coup that ousted Senator Vicente Sotto III as Senate President and replaced him with Senator Alan Peter Cayetano.

(The important change now is not the change of Senate leadership, but the 257 House members who voted in favor of the impeachment. The call for the Senate now is for them to fulfill their mandate to the Constitution.)

Cayetano, who served as House Speaker and Secretary of Foreign Affairs during the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, who is the father of the Vice President, has been against the impeachment of the Vice President.

Aside from the Vice President, de Lima warned that the public will also judge the Senators on how they delay, with the Articles of Impeachment against the Vice President.

“People are watching. Mulat at tayang-taya na ang taumbayan. Hindi sila magwawalang kibo lamang.Tuloy na tuloy na tuloy ang laban,” de Lima said.

(The people are keeping their eyes peeled, and they will now cower in silence. The fight is in order.)

House Assistant Majority Leader Zia Adiong agreed that the Senate’s leadership should not stop the Senate from convening as an impeachment court as mandated by the Constitution.

“While there is a change in Senate leadership, there should not be an issue when it comes to transmittal and acceptance. That's their constitutional mandate," Adiong told reporters.

"There shouldn't be any reason for the Senate not to convene as an impeachment court because, as you can see, during the confirmation hearings by the Committee of Justice, we have been very cautiously following the ruling of the Supreme Court. Everything that we have seen, every step of the way, is in accordance with not only the Constitution but also the Supreme Court on the petition filed against the impeachment complaints in the previous Congress. So, there shouldn't be any problem," Adiong added.

Likewise, Adiong said he will take Cayetano's word that the Senate leadership change is not related to the impeachment of the Vice President, at least for now.

"Should we be worried because there's a change in the leadership? The Senate President already spoke about this and said this change is not impeachment-related. So we shouldn't be worried. We will take their words as they are. There's no reason for us to worry that the Senate will, this time around, not exercise its constitutional duty to hear the evidence in an open court," Adiong added. –NB, GMA News