Sara Duterte says she’s ‘okay’ after impeachment: ‘We leave it to the lawyers’ by Jay Adrian Nuñez

   

      Vice President Sara Duterte speaks to the media, December 11, 2024. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News/File MANILA — Vice President Sara Duterte on Friday said she was “okay” after her impeachment and that she was consulting her lawyers.In her first comments since her impeachment, Duterte said, “Ang tanging masasabi ko na lamang sa puntong ito ay God save the Philippines.”“Bukod dito, nais ko na lang ipaabot ang aking taos pusong pasasalamat sa mga kababayan na patuloy nagdarasal, sumusuporta, nagtitiwala at patuloy na nagmamahal sa akin. Manalig kayo dahil sa taong bayan ang tagumpay,” the Vice President said.Duterte said she started preparing for the impeachment proceedings as early as November 2023, when House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro bared plans to file a complaint. 

    “So November of 2023, there were already lawyers doing their work for the impeachment. We leave it to the lawyers,” Duterte said. “I’m okay,” she added.Duterte was impeached by the House of Representatives on Wednesday for "violation of the constitution, betrayal of public trust, graft and corruption, and other high crimes".The Senate must convene a tribunal to try the vice president. If convicted, she will be removed from her post and barred from public office."I have not talked to my friends in the Senate," Duterte said. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has swatted down any suggestion he played a role in her impeachment process.“The executive cannot have a hand in the impeachment. Walang role ang executive sa impeachment,” Marcos said on Thursday. “Did we discuss it with the Speaker, did we discuss it with the other congressmen? Of course. Tinatanong (ko), ‘Ano ba talaga ang plano ninyo, ano ang gusto nyong gawin?’ ‘Nandito na ito eh, hindi na namin maiwasan.’”

    Senate President Francis Escudero told reporters that Duterte's trial would probably not finish before the next congress takes over in July.This could effectively mean Duterte's tribunal will be composed of entirely different members at the start and close of the trial.It will likely "extend into the 20th Congress. That's almost a sure thing now," he said.Speaking at a separate press conference, House Deputy Majority Leader Lorenz Defensor agreed the trial "may cross over to the next Congress", whose members will be determined by countrywide elections on May 12. 

    The set up of this tribunal could give Duterte ammunition to challenge her impeachment's legality, said Dennis Coronacion, head of the political science department at Manila's University of Santo Tomas.Because an impeachment voted on by sitting lawmakers could be tried by an incoming class, there was "speculation this will give the vice president a legal remedy and allow her to challenge that in the Supreme Court."The potential election of pro-Duterte senators to the body could also eliminate the two-thirds majority needed to secure a conviction, he added.Duterte, who has yet to publicly comment on her impeachment, was widely tipped to succeed her father Rodrigo as president in 2022 elections but stepped aside to back Marcos and later ran for vice president on his ticket.But the alliance has since imploded. In November, she delivered an expletive-laden speech saying she had ordered someone to kill Marcos if she herself was assassinated.She later denied that her comments constituted a death threat, saying she had only been expressing "consternation" with the administration's failures.

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