Vice President Sara Duterte was mum after the House of
Representatives overwhelmingly voted to impeach her for the second time,
launching the transmittal of the articles of impeachment to the Senate
for trial.
“I have no feelings about the impeachment,” Duterte said this week in an interview in The Hague, Netherlands.
“A
spokesperson and defense team have already been assigned for the
impeachment. And that is a legal process. So, we’ll just leave it to the
spokesperson and the lawyers to comment,” Duterte added.
Two
hundred fifty-seven House members voted to have Duterte impeached,
against the 25 votes from her allies. Nine voted to abstain.
Senate
President Alan Peter Cayetano assured the public on Wednesday, May 13,
that the upper chamber would not delay the impeachment trial of Duterte.
The
House of Representatives transmitted to the Senate the articles of
impeachment on Wednesday night, May 13, amid an alleged shooting inside
the building.
House Secretary General Cheloy Garafil delivered the articles at about 7:20 p.m.
Senate Secretary Mark Llandro Mendoza received the articles, Garafil confirmed.
As
this developed, multiple shots were fired by officers of the Office of
the Sergeant-at-Arms (OSAA), accompanied by armed Philippine Marines.
Minutes
after the shooting, at about 8 p.m., OSAA members allowed House
contingents to deliver the boxes containing the Articles of Impeachment.
Sen.
Imee Marcos earlier dared the House on Wednesday to transmit Duterte’s
articles of impeachment to the Senate immediately, questioning the time
the chamber was taking to reproduce “voluminous documents.”
“The
excuse that the House is still reproducing ‘voluminous documents’ is
flimsy, unacceptable and difficult to take seriously. The House has
dozens, if not hundreds, of personnel at its disposal, backed by full
administrative, legal, records, printing and information-technology
support,” Marcos said in a statement.
Garafil said the chamber needed to ensure the copies of articles forwarded are accurate.
Marcos, however, dismissed this as “pretend(ing) that paperwork has suddenly become an insurmountable obstacle.”
For
his part, House public accounts committee chairman and Bicol Saro
party-list Rep. Terry Ridon made assurances on Wednesday that it will
transmit at the soonest possible time to the Senate the four Articles of
Impeachment.
Ridon said they respect the position taken by
Marcos, but noted that under the Constitution, no specified time was
made in terms of sending the articles to the Senate for purposes of a
full-blown trial.
Besides, he explained further, no less than the
Supreme Court made additional and more stringent impeachment guidelines
when it nullified in July 2025 the first impeachment against Duterte.
“This
is why we are being more cautious in making sure that all the SC
guidelines have been religiously complied with, along with the due
process requirements,” he said.
Possible dismissal
The
public should keep an eye on the possibility that Duterte’s impeachment
trial might not prosper through her motion to dismiss or a vote by the
new members of the Senate majority that could favor the idea, election
lawyer Romulo Macalintal said.
In an opinion sent to The Philippine STAR on Wednesday, Macalintal wrote, “The real issue we must monitor is not whether the trial begins, but how it might be resolved.”
“There
is a strong possibility that when the Vice President is summoned to
answer the charges, her legal team will include or incorporate in her
answer a motion to dismiss the case or a motion to quash the Articles of
Impeachment,” he explained.
He said, “The Vice President may
reiterate arguments she raised in the House of Representatives regarding
alleged violation of her right to due process; that the case is
politically motivated or lack of factual basis of the complaint.”
Such
a motion to dismiss “would only require a simple majority vote – or at
least 13 senators,” similar to the tally that changed the Senate
majority bloc.
House Deputy Speaker Jay Khonghun scoffed at
Senator Marcos on Wednesday for repeatedly insinuating that congressmen
were paid to impeach Duterte.
Carpio adds SEC, IC to complaint
Duterte’s
husband Manases Carpio added the heads of the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) and the Insurance Commission (IC) as respondents in a
criminal complaint over the alleged illegal disclosure of bank records.
In
an addendum filed with the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office on
Wednesday, SEC Chairman Francis Edralin Lim and IC Commissioner Reynaldo
Regalado were named as additional respondents.
Carpio alleged the
AMLC leaked private transactions including insurance payments, time
deposits, investments and utility bills in violation of money
laundering, bank secrecy and data privacy laws.
Under the
Anti-Money Laundering Act, the council is composed of the Bangko Sentral
ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor as chairman and the heads of the IC and the
SEC as members.
He claimed the officials conspired to divulge
confidential financial information during a House committee on justice
hearing on April 22.
Carpio had initially filed a complaint
against BSP Governor and AMLC chairman Eli Remolona Jr., AMLC executive
director Ronel Buenaventura, lawmakers Gerville Reyes-Luistro, Percival
Cendaña, Jose Manuel Diokno and Leila de Lima and several John and Jane
does.
Carpio said that as the law requires the AMLC to act
unanimously, the council members are responsible for the public
testimony of Buenaventura. He cited reply-letters from Lim and Regalado
as evidence that the disclosure occurred with their prior knowledge.
“The
AMLC maintains that its actions are undertaken strictly in accordance
with the law and its institutional mandate,” Lim said in a reply-letter
dated May 4, according to the filing.
Regalado also replied in correspondence that the council’s actions fell within the bounds of its legal authority.
Carpio
contended that these responses prove the disclosure of his and his
wife’s bank records was authorized by the full council. – With Delon Porcalla, Daphne Galvez, Ghio Ong