Lawyer says Pinoys supportive of Sara impeachment 'not surprising'

A lawyer for the complainants of the third impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte said it is not surprising that more Filipinos are in favor of impeaching her than those against it.

In a statement on Thursday, lawyer Amando Virgil Ligutan said the public wants to hold Duterte accountable over her "controversial manner" of spending millions of pesos in confidential funds of the Department of the Education (DepEd) and the Office of the Vice President (OVP) under her leadership.

"There is palpable broad-based support to the initiatives to hold her accountable for the controversial manner she spent the multi-million confidential funds entrusted to her by the Filipino people, and her even more controversial stance not to explain to the public how she did it," Ligutan said.

"That really struck a nerve among our people. That made our people angry," he added.

Ligutan said the country is already tired of the brand of politics, which the Vice President represents.

"One that normalizes impunity and disregards with disdain public trust and accountability," Ligutan said.

A recent survey by pollster Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed that four in 10 Filipinos or 41% are supportive of the impeachment or removal from office of Duterte.

The SWS survey, conducted between December 12 and December 18, 2024 and commissioned by advisory and consultancy group Stratbase, also revealed that 35% of Filipinos are against the impeachment of Duterte.

On the other hand, at least 19% of the respondents are undecided.

GMA News Online earlier reached out to the Vice President's camp for comment on the survey results but it has yet to provide a response.

Ligutan said the result of the survey encourages proponents of the impeachment bid to work even harder to make the undecided Filipinos realize that there are two starkly opposite sides to choose from: "one that promotes honesty, integrity, and accountability in the handling of public funds, and the other one that espouses their opposites—dishonesty, corruption, and impunity in the handling of public funds."

"We reiterate our call to the members of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Vice President has clearly betrayed public trust. Until when will Congress allow the Vice President's unabashed betrayal of public trust go unchecked?" Ligutan said.

He added, "More than ever, we believe that it is no longer just the constitutional obligation of the members of the House of Representatives to impeach, and for the Senate to remove from office, the Vice-President. That obligation now becomes a moral one."

So far, there are three impeachment complaints filed by various groups and endorsed by six members of the House of Representatives against the Vice President. A fourth impeachment complaint is reportedly being considered to be filed in the Lower House.

Last December, Duterte said she welcomed the filing of impeachment complaints against her, saying that only she is the subject of the supposed attacks and do not include her former and current colleagues at the OVP and DepEd.

Duterte had added that this would also provide her the opportunity to finally answer allegations against her. — VDV, GMA Integrated News