Vice President Sara Duterte may be ousted from her position after having disclosed that she had hired a hitman to target President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and House of Representatives Speaker Martin Romualdez, said a lawmaker.
“Ang mga binitiwang mga salita ng ating Bise Presidente, tingin ko impeachable offense (I see the words spoken by our Vice President as an impeachable offense),” House Assistant Majority Leader and Zambales Representative Jay Khonghun stated.
Moreover, 1Rider Partylist Rep. Rodge Gutierrez said a case of malversation or plunder could be made of the procedural violations committed by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and Department of Education (DepEd) during Duterte’s tenure, with regard to the handling of ₱120 million in confidential funds.
“If this was taken for personal gain, if it was proven fictitious and erroneous ‘yung ARs (acknowledgment receipts) to justify the taking of this amount, that could be malversation proper or worse, plunder, kasi lampas na po ito sa ₱50 million (because this exceeds ₱50 million),” Gutierrez asserted.
The recent hearing held by the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability revealed that Duterte had purportedly ordered the funds, instead of being managed by special disbursing officers (SDO), to be passed to security officers. Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua, chair of the committee, said handing over funds to unauthorized personnel is a grave violation.
However, Khonghun made it clear that the matter of filing an impeachment case against Duterte has not been formally discussed by the members of the House. Chua said the committee will press on with the probe, and uncover what they can.
“Sa ngayon wala pa naman kaming napag-uusapan tungkol dyan. Basta kami tinutuloy pa lamang namin itong trabaho, kung ano ‘yung aming maa-unravel dito po sa committee hearing na ‘to,” said the committee head.
(As of now, we haven’t talked about that yet. We will simply continue this work, what we can unravel here in this committee hearing.)
“At the end of the day, ito ay pag-uusapan ng lahat ng mga miyembro ng committee,” Chua declared. “Hindi ito magiging decision ng isa. At the end of the day, collegial body ang mag-decide kung ano ang magiging laman or konteksto ng aming committee report.”
(At the end of the day, this will be discussed by all committee members. This will not be a single person’s decision. At the end of the day, the collegial body will be the one deciding what the content or context of the committee report will be.)
Meanwhile, Deputy Majority Leader and La Union Rep. Paolo Ortega assured the House will have concluded the probe before the Christmas break.
“Siyempre ang goal namin, matapos na iyong hearings at investigation para ‘yung policy recommendations, bagong batas, amendments at possible findings natin ma-submit sa mga kaukulang ahensya. Iyan ang number one priority ng committees,” he said.
