PHILIPPINE COMMITTEE: The head of the committee that made the decision said: ‘If there is nothing to hide, there is no reason to hide, there is no reason to obstruct’
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AP, MANILA
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A Philippine congressional committee on Wednesday ruled that there was “probable cause” to impeach Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte after hearing allegations of unexplained wealth, misuse of state funds and threats to have the president assassinated.
The unanimous decision of the 53-member committee in the Philippine House of Representatives sends the two impeachment complaints to deliberations and voting by the entire lower chamber, which has more than 300 lawmakers.
The complaints centered on Duterte’s alleged illegal use and mishandling of intelligence funds from the vice president’s office, and from her time as education secretary under Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Protesters call for the impeachment of Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte outside the Philippine House of Representatives in Quezon City, Metro Manila, on Wednesday.
Photo: EPA
Duterte and the president were running mates in an alliance in the 2022 election, but have since had a bitter falling out.
Duterte has denied wrongdoing.
If impeached by the entire House, she would face trial before the Philippine Senate.
At Wednesday’s hearing, the Philippine National Bureau of Investigation said that comments made by Duterte during an online news conference in 2024 to have Marcos, his wife and the House speaker killed if she herself was assassinated was a threat to national security.
Philippine Representative Gerville Luistro, who heads the justice committee, criticized the vice president for failing to attend six televised hearings and for asking the Philippine Supreme Court to stop the impeachment inquiry on several allegations, including huge bank transactions over the years that she has not declared as required by law.
“If there is nothing to hide, there is no reason to hide, there is no reason to obstruct,” Luistro said at the start of Wednesday’s committee hearing. “The only people who fear the disclosures of these transactions are those with dirty secrets.”
Duterte’s lawyers in response to the House’s committee’s decision said that “the proceedings before the committee departed from the constitutional design.”
“Instead of confining itself to the verified complaints and their attachments, the process expanded into matters that properly belong to a full trial,” they said.
Duterte’s husband, Manases Carpio, on Monday filed criminal complaints against Luistro and other legislators and officials after government records of the couple’s bank transactions were made public in a recent House hearing.
They said that contravened the country’s bank secrecy law.
Most of the allegations against Duterte had been included in an impeachment complaint she survived on a technicality last year.
The House voted to impeach her last year and sent the case to the Senate for trial. The Supreme Court later ruled that the lower chamber violated a constitutional rule that only one impeachment case could be processed by it in a single year.
