VICE President Sara Duterte has been vocal in criticizing the shortcomings of the Marcos Jr. administration.
One of these criticisms involved the flood control project, which Marcos Jr. proudly highlighted in his third State of the Nation Address.
However, VP Sara’s criticism was met with retaliation from Marcos Jr.’s allied congressmen.
They bombarded the Vice President with relentless criticism, leading to reports that the process to remove her from office had already begun.
Former Presidential Spokesperson Atty. Harry Roque said that it wouldn’t be surprising if the majority of Congress, under Speaker Martin Romualdez, favored the impeachment of VP Sara.
“If you notice, the congressmen, although they all seem to be echoing their PR’s talking points, are relentlessly attacking VP Sara to counter her accusations. It seems they are starting the impeachment process against VP Sara as retaliation for her statements against the government.”
“It’s a double-edged sword because, although we know you have the numbers in Congress, and you’re all under the Speaker’s control, you’re rushing this impeachment,” according to Atty. Harry Roque, Former Presidential Spokesperson.
But Roque emphasized that even if the majority of Congress members favor removing VP Sara, it would still be difficult to push the ‘impeachment’ through the Senate.
“First of all, you know it will be difficult in the Senate, especially if you’re basing it on the confidential funds that are still pending in the Supreme Court. So how can the Senate act on a legal issue that is already pending before the Supreme Court? Shouldn’t we wait for the outcome since it’s the judiciary’s duty to uphold the supremacy of our Constitution, as stated by the petitioners in the Supreme Court, who claim that the Constitution was violated when Marcos Jr. allocated P221 million to Inday Sara, with 125 million of that being confidential funds spent by satellite offices? If you look at where that money went, it was all used to help the people. That’s really how confidential funds should be used,” Atty. Roque added.
Roque added that, aside from the confidential funds being thrown at VP Sara, it’s possible they will add other reasons for the planned impeachment against the Vice President.
“They say they’ll include various other bases for impeachment, such as the alleged procurement of ghost textbooks. But I know that VP Sara is very cautious when it comes to procurement in DepEd because when she took office, there was already a scandal involving laptops, which even included the chair of the Committee on Appropriations, Zaldy Co. But nothing came of it—there was just noise, and nothing happened. I don’t know if anyone will actually be charged there,” stated Roque.
