VICE-PRESIDENT Sara Duterte responded to her Senate impeachment trial summons hours before the deadline, demanding that the case against her be dropped.
The House of Representatives impeached Duterte in early February on charges of graft, corruption and an alleged assassination plot against one-time ally and former running mate President Ferdinand Marcos.
A guilty verdict in the Senate would result in her removal from office and permanent disqualification from politics.
A copy of Duterte’s reply to the summons delivered by messenger to House prosecutors yesterday afternoon called the complaint against her an abuse of the impeachment process.
“There are no statements of ultimate facts in the (impeachment complaint). Stripped of its ‘factual’ and legal conclusions, it is nothing more than a scrap of paper,” the response read.
It went on to deny the allegations made against her as “false” and state that the Senate’s decision to remand the case to the House earlier this month removed her responsibility to answer them.
Duterte is currently on a trip to Australia, where she is meeting with Filipino supporters.
Her summons was issued on June 10 after a Senate session that saw lawmakers convene as an impeachment court only to send the case back to the House. Barely 24 hours later, the House complied with the senior body’s order to “certify” the constitutionality of the impeachment. — AFP
