Sara Duterte pleads ‘not guilty' in impeachment case
Vice President Sara Duterte has entered a 'not guilty' plea in the verified impeachment complaint filed against her by the House of Representatives, which she called merely a 'scrap of paper.'
In the 35-page answer ad cautelam (with caution) submitted by Duterte's camp to the Senate impeachment court on Monday, the Vice President argued that the fourth impeachment complaint must be dismissed for being illegal, saying that it violated the one-year bar rule under the 1987 Constitution.
This was in reference to the Constitutional provision allowing only one impeachment complaint to be filed against an impeachable official per year.
Duterte also said that there are 'no statement of ultimate facts' in the fourth impeachment complaint.
'Stripped of its 'factual' and legal conclusions, it is nothing more than a scrap of paper,' the document read.
'Being laden with conclusions of 'facts' and law, the fourth impeachment complaint is a clear abuse of the impeachment process,' it added.
The House of Representatives impeached Duterte on February 5, with over 200 lawmakers endorsing the complaint. On June 10, the Senate impeachment court convened, with the trial proper expected to begin in the 20th Congress.
The seven Articles of Impeachment against Duterte are:
Conspiracy to assassinate President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Marcos, and Speaker Martin Romualdez;
Malversation of P612.5 million in confidential funds with questionable liquidation documents;
Bribery and corruption in the Department of Education (DepEd) during Duterte's tenure as Education Secretary, involving former DepEd officials;
Unexplained wealth and failure to disclose assets in her Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN), with her wealth reportedly increasing fourfold from 2007 to 2017;
Involvement in extrajudicial killings in Davao City;
Destabilization and public disorder efforts, including boycotting the State of the Nation Address (SONA) while declaring herself 'designated survivor,' leading rallies calling for Marcos Jr.'s resignation, obstructing congressional investigations, and issuing threats against top officials; and
The totality of her conduct as Vice President.
Duterte submitted the answer ad cautelam, following the summons served to the Office of the Vice President (OVP) on June 11, which ordered her to answer the articles of impeachment against her.
In the document, the Vice President said there should be no reason for the issuance of the summons considering that the articles of impeachment were returned to the House by the Senate impeachment court, after getting 18-5 votes from the senator-judges.
'Thus, the Vice President cannot be compelled to answer allegations in Articles of Impeachment that had been ordered returned to its source,' it read.
'Without the Articles of Impeachment in the chamber of the Court consequent to its order to return it to the HOR, requiring the Vice President to answer allegations therein is tantamount to requiring an accused to answer criminal charges which the Court has not yet decided to act upon or receive,' it added.
Duterte, however, denied allegations against her, which include bribery, corruption, betrayal of public trust, misuse of confidential funds, contracting an assassin, and political destabilization—calling them 'false, misleading, impertinent, and mere conclusions of fact and law.'
Contract to kill?
Duterte's camp said that the allegation in relation to her previous statement that she had contracted someone to kill Marcos, his wife, and Romualdez if she herself gets killed, 'does not offer any proof thereof [and] does not show what acts allegedly constitute such 'high crimes.''
'Worse, this conclusion is used as the basis for further unsupported assertions that the Vice President allegedly undermined peace and order, destabilized the government, and forwarded unconstitutional means of removing the President. This line of reasoning lacks any factual foundation. Such unsubstantiated allegations have no place in impeachment proceedings, or any legal proceeding,' the document read.
'Even worse, the Fourth Impeachment Complaint proceeded to form another conclusion that accuses the Vice President of allegedly committing sedition, terrorism, 'among other crimes.' However, there was no allegation made to state how the elements of these crimes were committed by the Vice President or whether these elements exist at all,' it continued.
Duterte made the controversial statement in November 2024 when her chief of staff Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez was ordered transferred from the House detention facility to the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City.
Following this, Marcos issued a strong statement, vowing to block "criminal attempts" amid the alleged threat of Duterte to him and his family.
Duterte then maintained that her statement was "taken out of logical context."
Confidential funds
Duterte also maintained that any assertion that the confidential funds of the OVP and DepEd were misappropriated for personal gain or use or were malversed 'is not a statement of fact but a mere conclusion of law that only a court on the basis of evidence presented can make.'
'No final decision exists declaring the disbursements illegal, unjustifiable, exorbitant, excessive, extravagant, and/or unconscionable. The 19th HOR thus cannot arrogate upon itself the functions belonging exclusively to the Commission on Audit and ultimately, the Supreme Court,' the document noted.
To recall, the House of Representatives filed a complaint against Duterte and several other officials, stemming from the recommendation of the House Committee on Good Governance and Public Accountability over the alleged misuse of P500 million in confidential funds of the OVP and P112.5 million in confidential funds of DepEd from 2022-2024.
The House prosecutors have five days from the receipt of Duterte's answer ad cautelam to provide their own reply. Since June 28 falls on a Saturday, they could still submit up to June 30, Monday. — BM, GMA Integrated News
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