MANILA: Vice President Sara Duterte would not attend the impeachment hearings against her at the House of Representatives’ committee on justice, lawyer and defence panel spokesperson Michael Poa said on Tuesday (April 14).
Poa in an ambush interview at the Batasang Pambansa complex said that he is attending the hearing because it is a compulsory process — having been the subject of a subpoena from the committee on justice.
When asked if Duterte will attend, Poa said the defence called the committee to inform that the vice president will skip the hearing.
“We just follow the process,” Poa said.
“I don’t think so, I think they already, the defence already called yesterday to inform that we will not be attending […] I don’t know what to expect so we’ll just wait and see,” he added.
Poa, former spokesperson of the Department of Education (DepEd) when Duterte was still Education secretary, was asked to attend the hearing on Tuesday amid questions in line with confidential fund (CF) disbursements and his coordination with the Commission on Audit (COA).
Several allegations have been raised against Vice President Sara Duterte ever since different House committees checked the alleged anomalous confidential fund (CF) expenditures within her offices.
There were also a lot of hearings regarding these issues, but on April 14, the country for the first time will see evidence against Duterte examined, as the committee on justice expects several documents and witnesses to appear after they issued different subpoenas.
Aside from the April 14 hearing, two more hearing dates have been identified — April 22 and 29. Luistro previously said that if the committee needs more dates to examine the evidence, they will set additional hearings. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
