Castro: House’s OVP confi funds probe will be wasted without impeachment

The House of Representatives will waste its probe into the Office of the Vice President's use of confidential funds if it does not pursue the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte, House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT-Teachers party-list Representative France Castro said Monday.

“I have that sentiment that the House probe will go to waste without the impeachment, kaya sana huwag sayangin ng Kongreso yung mga ginawang pag-iimbestiga dito sa [House] Committee on Good Government, pati na ‘yung mga testimonya ng mga testigo na humarap rito. Sayang rin naman ‘yung pagpupuyat ng ating mga mamamayan na nakikinig at nanonood sa proseso na ginawa natin. Kailangan natin tugunan itong ganitong clamor ng ating mga kababayan na magtuloy itong impeachment,” Castro told reporters in a chance interview in Batasan Complex.

(I hope Congress will not waste the investigations of the Committee on Good Government, as well as the testimonies of the witnesses who faced it. The long hours that our fellow Filipinos spent watching and listening to the probe would also be wasted. We have to respond to the clamor of impeachment.)

“Nakita naman natin tumataas iyong bilang ng mga mamamayan na [gusto] talagang ituloy itong impeachment,” she added.

(We see that the number of Filipinos who want the impeachment to continue is growing.)

A recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey found that 41% of Filipinos are in favor of impeachment or removal of Duterte, compared to 35% against and 19% undecided.

The House good government and public accountability panel's inquiry found that the Office of the Vice President and Department of Education (DepEd)—both under Duterte at the time, though she has since vacated the DepEd leadership—spent P500 million and P112.5 million worth of confidential funds respectively from December 2022 to September 2023, with documentation that included acknowledgement receipts containing wrong dates, signatories with no birth records, unnamed signatures, and non-readable signatures. 

Public clamor

Since the SWS poll came out, House of Representatives Secretary General Reginald Velasco announced that the three impeachment complaints filed against Duterte have all been verified.

Castro welcomed the development, but said that she and the other complainants will continue to appeal to lawmakers to support the impeachment with a series of protest actions in the next two weeks.

“Kami rin, naiinip na, kaya pinangunahan na namin yung meeting ng set ng complainants. Isang buwan na [ang nakalipas] at nagsalita na rin ang SecGen na natapos na rin nila ‘yung pag-ve-vet or pag-tingin sa substance, pag-ve-verify. Kaya sana, bumilis na at inaasahan natin na ma-hearing na ito bago mag-recess ulit ang Kongreso sa February 7,” Castro said.

(We are also getting impatient, so we have gone ahead with a meeting among the compainants. One month has passed [since the hearings ended], and the SecGen has confirmed that the vetting of the substance has been completed. So it is to be hoped that the process will speed up and we hope that there will be a hearing on this before Congress again goes on recess on February 7.)

Once Velasco forwards the impeachment complaint to the Office of Speaker Martin Romualdez, the Speaker has 10 session days to refer it to the Justice Committee.

If at least one of the three impeachment complaints is endorsed by one-third of all the members of the House (around 107), the Vice President will be deemed impeached in the House and will have to face the Senate for her impeachment trial.

“Tuloy-tuloy naman ‘yung panawagan ng ating mga kababayan, very active kami dito sa impeachment complaint. Kung pwedeng araw-arawin namin ang Kongreso, na mga complainants na dito [ay] dumulog [para] ipahayag na talagang kilusan na nila ito ay gagawin natin,” Castro added.

(Our calls continue and we are very active about this impeachment complaint. If we must plead our case every day to show that they must act on this then we will do it.)

In a separate statement, former Bayan Muna party-list congressman Teddy Casiño agreed with Castro that shying away from impeachment would render the efforts of the House probe useless.

“Now that Congress resumed its session, the House of Representatives should start the impeachment process, with or without the approval of President Bongbong Marcos, as part of its Constitutional obligation of accountability. 41% [of Filipinos in favor of impeachment] is a big number,” Casiño said.

“The findings of the House Good Government and Public Accountability hearings on this matter will be wasted if Congress fails to act on the complaints filed. If President Marcos Jr. is serious about his commitment to good governance, he must allow Congress to independently address the allegations against Vice President Duterte or else he will risk repeating the same failures of accountability that plagued his father’s administration,” he added.

On Monday the Iglesia Ni Cristo held rallies across the country, headlining peace and unity but with the stated purpose of opposing Duterte's impeachment. The Philippine National Police estimated the total of attendees for all the rallies to be around 1.8 million. — BM, GMA Integrated News