PAYBACK TIME

February 10, 2025 Opinion

The word payback as a noun has two interesting meanings, one is, “a return on an investment equal to the original capital outlay”, as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and another has a more sinister undertone which simply means “revenge or “retaliation”. For Vice President Sara Duterte her impeachment by the House of Representatives was very clearly retaliation on the part of the members of the Lower House of Congress for her apparent disdain, almost snobbish behavior, and adamant refusal to comply with the processes entailed in a budget
deliberation or a congressional inquiry on her previous government administrative functions.

Her contemptuous behavior during an inquiry by members of the House especially when she refused to take an oath
or simply avoided being present during the deliberations is actually an insult that may have led the majority of the representatives to believe that she no longer possesses the fitness to be the vice president of the country. This may have also been the reason why although the required number of signatures needed to file a verified complaint for
impeachment is only one third of all the 306 members of the House or 102 complainants the 4th complaint for impeachment against the Vice President gathered 215 signatures which was more than enough to have it immediately endorsed to the Senate and with Sara declared as impeached.

They say ‘paybacks a b***h’, and now Vice President Sara for all her acumen as a seasoned politician has only herself to blame for the impending spectacle of her trial in the Senate after being impeached in the Lower House. It will now be a waiting game on her part to find out whether the members of the Senate will convict her or not of the charges as
contained in the articles of impeachment. Now the Senate will try, in a full blown trial, the impeachable officer, in this case Vice President Sara Duterte, and after hearing arguments from both sides decide whether to convict or not. If the decision is for conviction then it will require a two thirds vote of all members of the Senate but anything less than that will be for acquittal.

The Senate of course has twenty four members so two thirds of that would be sixteen senators. For the Lower House since its members were the one who filed the complaint for impeachment they would have to respond to another
duty and that is to serve and act as prosecutors during the trial of the Vice President. The latest disclosure from the Lower House bares a list of those congressmen who will act as prosecutors during the trial and they are the following: Batangas Rep. Gerville “Jinky” Bitrics Luistro, Antipolo City Rep. Romeo Acop, 1-Rider Party-list Rep.
Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez, Manila City Rep. Joel R. Chua, Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Raul Angelo Bongalon, General Santos Rep. Loreto Acharon, 4PS Party-list Rep. Marcelino Libanan, Oriental Mindoro Rep. Arnan Panaligan, San Juan Rep. Ysabel Maria Zamora, Iloilo Rep. Lorenz R. Defensor, and Bukidnon Rep. Jonathan Keith Flores. The impeachment proceedings against the Vice President are a political process and we can be sure that any decision
that will be made by the Senate will almost certainly involve politics.

Finally for us laymen and for our edification the grounds for impeachment against the Vice President are the following: According to Article I of the impeachment, she allegedly committed betrayal of public trust, culpable violation of the Constitution, and other high crimes when she threatened death against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos, and Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, in Article II, she is accused of betraying public trust and committing graft and corruption for allegedly misappropriating and malversing funds allocated to her office and the Department of Education, Article III states and alleges that she betrayed the public trust, committed graft and corruption, and bribery, in Article IV, she is accused of culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust for allegedly amassing unexplained wealth and failing to declare them in her SALN, in Article V, she was alleged to have committed high crimes, including murder and conspiracy to commit the same, in Article VI, lawmakers alleged that she committed acts of destabilization, which constitute a culpable violation of the Constitution and even the high crimes of sedition and insurrection, and in Article VII, lawmakers asserted that the totality of the abovementioned acts demonstrates that the Vice President is unfit to remain in office.