The saga of the Marcos-Duterte feud continues—another episode that opened with the two impeachment complaints against VP Sara and a possible third complaint to be filed this week. Although PBBM dissuaded his allies by asking them to not waste their time filing complaints, his act may yet be the signal for the impeachment process to proceed (but suspicions that he encouraged it are repressed).
The first impeachment complaint against VP Sara was endorsed by Akbayan Party-List Representative Perci Cendana, and the second by the Makabayan lawmakers. As reported in the media, the third impeachment complaint will come from a “religious group.”
Among the impeachable offenses referred to in the complaints is based on the betrayal of public trust allegedly committed by VP Sara when she grossly abused her powers over the P612.50 million confidential funds of the Office of the Vice-President and the Department of Education from December 2022 up to the third quarter of 2023.
VP Sara welcomes the filing of complaints saying that the proceedings will be an opportunity for her to “properly answer whatever their accusations are because the process is laid out clearly in our laws…” She also said that the proceedings will also spare the already-harassed personnel in her office who had been subpoenaed several times to appear before Congress and the NBI regarding the disbursement of intelligence funds of her office.
The 15th Congress of the Philippines enacted and approved the rules of procedure in impeachment proceedings.
Briefly, following the impeachment procedure, all the complaints against VP Sara shall be filed with the Office of the Secretary General and immediately referred to the Speaker of the House who, in turn, shall refer them to the House Justice Committee. The complaints are expected to be consolidated and the Justice Committee shall determine whether they are sufficient in form and in substance.
If the Justice Committee finds them sufficient in form and in substance, it will require VP Sara to submit her answer. The Justice Committee shall then conduct hearings, after which it shall submit a report to the House and will be calendared for action. The House will vote on the complaints, and it only takes one-third of the all members of the House voting in favor, to impeach VP Sara. Should the House vote to impeach VP Sara, it shall prepare the articles of impeachment and send it to the Senate for the impeachment trial.
The impeachment procedure is akin to a criminal procedure in which a complaint is first brought to the Prosecutor’s Office for preliminary investigation to determine if there is probable cause to issue and file an Information in a regular court. The court will then conduct a trial where the prosecutor and the accused will be given the right to present and submit their evidence. In an impeachment proceeding, Congress works like the Prosecutor’s Office to determine if there is probable cause to file Articles of Impeachment (Information) before the Senate which works like a regular court to determine the innocence or guilt of the impeached official.
Note that when an official is impeached, it does not mean that they are already guilty of the accusation against them. It only means that the House finds probable cause to indict them of the complaints brought before the House. Thus, the impeached official is like the accused in a criminal case and their guilt or innocence has yet to be tried before the Senate sitting as the Impeachment Court. If found guilty, the official is removed from office. The Senate cannot sentence the guilty to any imprisonment.
It is observed that the House will likely impeach VP Sara considering that the majority bloc in Congress allied with PBBM consists of more than one-third of the members needed to vote for impeachment. However, should the articles of impeachment be brought before the Senate, we have yet to observe if the senators will act honorably like judges sitting in an impeachment court.
Next episode please…
