First Word
WHILE stuck at The Hague and with no means to provide moral support or otherwise to his daughter Vice President Sara Duterte in her impeachment ordeal in Congress, former president Rodrigo Duterte nevertheless impacted the proceedings in some way.
While the House of Representatives was hard at work cooking the articles of impeachment against Sara, DU30 gratuitously delivered a telling characterization of his daughter as a “drama queen,” which, not unsurprisingly, fit neatly with every twist and turn in her impeachment trial.
The vice president first showed her flair for drama when she unleashed online a fiery tirade against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and disclosed that she had asked someone (a hitman?) to kill the president, First Lady Louise Araneta Marcos and former House speaker Martin Romualdez, in case she herself was killed. The idea of a multi-assassination plot was so blood-curdling and shocking, it induced the House to turn grave threats against the president into Article IV of the articles of impeachment against the vice president that it transmitted to the Senate for trial.
To make grave threats a truly impeachable and reprehensible offense by Sara, the House proponents dug up records and a video recording of a famous incident in Davao City which happened when Sara Duterte was Davao City mayor. The video shows Mayor Sara pummeling the city sheriff into submission for disobeying her orders. The embarrassing video of the incident is an ugly sight reminiscent of Sara’s German ancestry which would include Hitler and the Nazis when they ruled Germany.
Plans were then made by the House managers and the prosecution to make the sheriff testify against Vice President Duterte in the trial.
All the preparations for a contentious duel over the grave threats article were dashed, however, when the article flopped on trial and the prosecution was challenged to produce evidence of a plot to assassinate President Marcos, let alone the existence or identity of the hitman.
On July 21, the eighth day of the impeachment trial, the prosecution meekly announced that it would drop Article IV from the articles of impeachment against Vice President Duterte. They will proceed to prosecuting the vice president on Articles, I, II, and III.
The three are: Article I: Misuse of confidential and DepEd funds totaling P612.5 million; Article II: Unexplained wealth and incomplete disclosures in statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) from 2022 to 2024; and Article III: Bribery and procurement issues involving Department of Education officials.
Little did they know that another dramatic twist was about to break in the vice president’s impeachment trial and bamboozle the court.
On Tuesday, July 21, the eighth day of the trial, the Office of the Vice President (OVP) quietly announced that Vice President Duterte had left that day for an “overseas trip” with stops in Qatar, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
“The itinerary includes both official foreign travel and personal engagements. No government funds will be used by the vice president for the entire duration of the trip,” the office said.
“These activities are intended to engage with overseas Filipinos and advance the Philippines’ interests abroad,” it added.
With the vice president out of the country, citizens naturally will ask: What happens now to the impeachment trial with nobody in the dock? Is Vice President Duterte not required to be present at her trial and take part in the proceedings by answering the charges against her?
The answer to this query is why the authorities draw a distinction between an impeachment trial and an ordinary trial of a penal case. In an ordinary penal case the accused is obliged to be present at the trial; in an impeachment trial the impeached are not required to be present at the trial. By the same token the impeached are not required to participate in the trial because they can be represented by counsel.
Vice President Sara Duterte is fully employing the subtle shadings of the rules in her dealings with the impeachment court.
She went to the Senate on July 7, but she only met with her defense team and briefly spoke to reporters.
What will the impeachment court do while the vice president is away traipsing in the Middle East and Europe? It will plainly postpone some scheduled court dates. Based on a past Supreme Court ruling, Sara is perfectly within her rights to stay away from the trial. The senator-judges can twiddle their thumbs until presiding judge Francis Escudero declares that the impeachment trial can reconvene and the proceedings can move on.
The nation should wait and see until Vice President Duterte returns from her overseas trip on July 31.
yenobserver@gmail.com
