Manila: Philippine civil groups filed an impeachment complaint on Monday against Vice-President Sara Duterte, a move that may struggle to find lawmaker support ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
Duterte’s alleged unlawful acts include corruption, bribery, and other “high crimes,” according to the complaint endorsed by Akbayan, a progressive political alliance, which also cited her apparent threat to have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. killed as evidence of her “depravity” and “mental incapacity” to serve.
The complaint was filed at the House of Representatives just three days after Marcos warned any impeachment effort would be a potential distraction that could slow reforms, calling his dispute with Duterte a “storm in a teacup.” The wide-ranging allegations touch upon Duterte’s behavior as vice-president and as former head of the education department and mayor of Davao City.
“The problem with this impeachment complaint, I think it is a bit haphazard,” said Froilan Calilung, who teaches political science at the University of Santo Tomas, suggesting that it may not be endorsed by the House of Representatives’ justice committee. “But then again this will be a prelude to a stronger impeachment complaint that could be filed next year.”
Duterte has yet to respond to the impeachment complaint and a spokesperson said the matter has been relayed to her.
The filing is expected to undergo hearings by the justice panel, a majority of which must vote for it to be taken up by the entire chamber. The complaint would then need backing from at least one-third of all house members for a Senate trial to proceed.
Marcos’s allies control the house, but a conviction at the Senate may prove challenging, as an impeachment proceeding could alienate Duterte’s supporters ahead of midterm elections in May. Sara Duterte’s father, Rodrigo Duterte, was president before Marcos, and the Duterte family enjoy strong support in the south of the country.
Violent rhetoric
“I don’t think any senator would want to risk having an impeachment trial before the elections because that will really have a great toll on their political capital,” Calilung said. “Certainly, they don’t want to antagonize the Duterte followers.”
Just two years after they won election on a joint ticket, Duterte’s relationship with Marcos has completely broken down. She claimed late last month that — in the event of her death — she had arranged for the killing of the president, his wife and his cousin, the house speaker. Her father had previously publicly bragged of directing a “death squad” to kill criminals.
The impeachment complaint cited Sara Duterte’s alleged “meltdown” when she made the remarks, which included the statement she claimed to have made to an unidentified person: “I told him, don’t stop until you have killed them and then he said yes.” “The Vice-President has reduced public office to a platform for violent rhetoric, personal enrichment, elitist entitlement and a shield for impunity,” Teresita Quintos Deles, one of the complainants, said in the Monday statement. “Her actions desecrate our institutions, and her continued grip on power insults every Filipino who stands for good governance and the rule of law.”
The 46-year old Sara Duterte, a lawyer, has said her comments were taken out of context. “Tossing the word ‘assassin’ into this issue makes things even more terrifying — and especially because I never used that term during my recent consternation,” she said in a November 26 Facebook post.
Duterte’s remarks raised concerns in the Philippines, a young democracy where protests helped oust a leader as recently as 2001, and where the current president’s father was dictator until the 1980s.
Indeed, Rodrigo Duterte last week followed up on his daughter’s comments by asking for the military to correct “fractured governance,” remarks that some interpreted as a call for the army to intervene, even as he said he wasn’t calling for a coup.
Sara Duterte was scheduled to explain her apparent assassination threat to the National Bureau of Investigation on Nov. 29, but the hearing was tentatively reset for Dec. 11, on her request.
The police also filed a complaint against Sara Duterte and her security detail over allegations of assault and coercion following an incident involving the transfer of her chief of staff to a hospital from the House of Representatives.
Monday’s impeachment complaint, by a group that included civil society leaders and former government officials, said Duterte violated her constitutional oath and engaged in gross misconduct. That included her alleged misuse of confidential funds provided to the office of the vice president, along with sundry alleged misdeeds at other times in her career.
