VP Sara: House efforts to impeach me are recorded

Vice President Sara Duterte on Tuesday said efforts of the members of the House of Representatives plotting her impeachment are documented.

“As a friend, I will not violate the confidence of a few members of the House of Representatives who have either recorded conversations or participated in shared conversations regarding each impeachment proceedings against me. Nonetheless, this is nothing new,” Duterte said during her opening statement before the House committee on appropriations deliberations on the OVP’s proposed P2 billion budget for 2025.

She said that a member of the House already declared in an interview that “in light of the possible numerous violations of the OVP on the use of the P125 million confidential funds which is not in the 2022 General Appropriations Act, we are not discounting the fact that it may file an impeachment case.”

This quote about impeachment efforts against her, the Vice President said, was published in a daily newspaper.

“Talks on impeachment have been ongoing for several weeks. Surprisingly, despite the absence of proof as to any wrongdoing, she already revealed the grounds for impeachment when she was also quoted as saying especially on the misuse of public funds, technical malversation, and violation of the 1987 Constitution,” Duterte added.

Duterte served as the running mate of former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the 2022 presidential polls under a ticket dubbed as Uniteam.

Cracks in the alliance, however, started to reveal amid alleged political and policy differences. 

In May 2023, Duterte resigned from Lakas-CMD party as its chairperson and a member, saying that she won’t be able to serve the country amid "political toxicity“ or undermined by "execrable political powerplay." 

She did not drop names, but Lakas-CMD’s president and Duterte’s 2022 campaign manager is Speaker Martin Romualdez, cousin of Marcos.

In June this year, Duterte resigned as Education Secretary "out of concern for teachers and students."

The Marcos administration was also seen reversing his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte's policies such as the war on drugs and South China Sea. —LDF, GMA Integrated News