Vice-president Sara Duterte-Carpio will soon face an impeachment complaint before the House of Representatives, even before she can face plunder charges, which are likely to be filed soon.
An ongoing House inquiry into Duterte’s alleged misuse of public funds has determined that she faces two potential grounds for impeachment: graft and corruption, and betrayal of public trust.
Rep. Joel Chua, head of the House inquiry into the VP’s alleged misuse of public funds, said she will be impeached.
Once proven or impeached, “that’s the time for cases to be filed against the vice-president,” said Chua.
And while it has been suggested that a sitting vice-president has the same privileges as the president, including immunity from prosecution while in office, an opinion from former Justice secretary Menardo Guevarra said a VP is not immune from criminal charges while in office.
For now, any case filed against VP Duterte-Carpio will not be sufficient to remove her from office. She is, however, an impeachable official according to the Constitution. Thus, the only way to forcibly remove her is via the impeachment route. Unless she voluntarily resigns, which does not seem likely at this point.
Chua pointed to the House committee on Good Government and Public Accountability’s findings that the Office of the Vice-president (OVP) had spent PHP16 million in confidential funds in the span of 11 days in December of 2022, ostensibly to pay rent for 34 safe houses.
Commission on Audit reports stated that rental payments ranged from PHP250,000 to PHP1 million. Lawmakers calculated that the most expensive safehouse rented by the OVP cost PHP91,000 daily for 11 days.
The Vice-president is seen to be in hot water due to lack of proper documentation for the rental payments, with the lawmakers emphasizing that difficulty in verifying the names of the persons who received acknowledgement receipts due to illegible handwriting.
In a statement, Chua said the PHP16 million rental for safe houses in the last quarter of 2022 offered no details.
He said, “We do not know if the funds really were used for rental payments.”
The House committee also identified what it said was a discrepancy in the use of confidential funds for military-led “youth leadership summits.”
The Philippine Army denied receiving PHP15 million from the Department of Education during Duterte-Carpio’s time as Education secretary.
Youth trainings by the Armed Forces by local government units are usually self-financed, according to military officials.
But the Vice-president later clarified that she had used confidential funds to provide supporting information regarding areas identified as places where there were “children at risk.”
Her denial contradicts four separate certifications received by COA confirming the release of the funds to the Army.
To this day, nobody knows where the PHP15 million went, according to Chua.
In order for her to face plunder raps, Duterte-Carpio will have to be charged for ill-gotten wealth at a minimum of PHP50 million threshold.
Chua told local media that they are assessing what cases will be filed against the vice-president, as there is another PHP73 million that the COA said the OVP had inappropriately spent.
The VP has been ordered by COA to return the funds to the government’s coffers as their use was deemed to have been “irregular, unnecessary, excessive, extravagant, or illegal.”
If the House committee validates the grounds for impeachment, it will be forwarded to the committee on Justice, which is responsible for impeachment recommendations. If approved, it will then be forwarded to the plenary for a vote.
If impeached, the Senate will serve as a special court to try the accused.
