MANILA: The impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte may be expedited by the House Committee on Justice if she does not answer the complaints by Monday (March 16), Bicol Saro party-list Rep. Terry Ridon said.
Duterte was given 10 days to provide a reply shortly after two impeachment complaints against her were deemed sufficient in substance and form. The deadline lapses on Monday.
“The House Committee on Justice is awaiting the vice president’s answer… In the event that she does not respond by Monday, the process will be shortened, abbreviated,” Ridon told media in a forum on Saturday (March 14).
“So that means, I think as early as the final weeks of this month, we can proceed to a determination of sufficiency in grounds, and then, we can proceed to the hearing proper,” he later added.
Ridon, a member of the justice committee, clarified that Duterte and her camp will be given until the end of office hours on Monday, before the panel decides on the “next step.”
Should the vice president respond, the complainants will be allowed to answer back within three days, and Duterte, once more, shall be allowed to provide a rejoinder, or another reply for another three days.
With or without a reply, the justice panel will proceed with determining the sufficiency in grounds, tentatively scheduled for April 8, Ridon said.
Duterte’s impeachment complaints come after allegations of misuse of confidential funds in the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education (DepEd), which she led from July 2022 to June 2024.
She is also facing impeachment for allegedly threatening to hire a hitman to assassinate President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former House speaker and the President’s cousin, Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez.
The complainants also alleged that the vice president had been bribing officials at DepEd and that she favored certain distributors for procurement in the same agency. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
