TIME TO WORRY

February 22, 2025 Opinion

For those closely monitoring developments on the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte they might have
noticed how quickly the general mood has changed with regard to how she projects herself right after she found out that a majority of the members of the Lower House wanted her removed from office. An impeachment proceeding has a way of sobering up its recipient and in the case of the Vice President it is a time to worry about what will happen during the trial and if an adverse decision is rendered against her.

This is the stark reality which she must now face and no amount of popularity with the people will enable her to
extricate herself from this situation which she herself has created. If only she was a bit more respectful and demure towards the members of the House when she was called to defend her budget during the several legislative hearings
conducted, and if only she were a bit less disdainful of the House proceedings itself which sought to elicit from her and her subordinates a reasonable explanation on how her confidential funds were utilized, both when she was the
secretary of Education and as Vice President of the country.

Then things might not have taken a turn for the worse and she might still be enjoying the same level of popularity with the congressmen as she is popular with the public at large. But that ship has sailed and now the vice president is
confronted with the very real possibility of being removed from office through impeachment. Of course if it is any comfort for the Vice President her present predicament is not unique considering that there have been other high public officials who have been removed or have resigned due to impeachment. We recall that way back in the year 2000 former president Joseph Estrada was impeached in the lower house but this trial was aborted because he was
ousted by an uprising in 2001.

There was also that conviction by the Senate of impeached former chief justice Renato Corona and was thus removed
from his office. And there was also that impeachment of former COMELEC chairman Andres Bautista but who resigned before the impeachment trial could get underway. So there have been precedents or previous cases of high public officials being impeached by the Lower House and undergoing trial in the Senate. Definitely however, and this cannot be avoided, the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte will be a spectacle in itself that might
even surpass the excitement of knowing the victors in the next midterm elections this coming May 2025.

This is because for the first time in the political history of the country we have a sitting vice president whose family name has already earned the reputation of being combative, feisty, contentious and disdainful of orderly and lawful processes. That is a heavy burden that Sara has to shoulder as she faces the prospect of being hailed to the Senate and tried for having committed serious offenses against.