The ledger on trial: Why true accountability can’t stop at the Vice President’s door

For forty-odd session days, reporters covering the Senate have watched two very different worlds collide. Inside the chamber, senator-judges in maroon robes parse bank records, land titles and corporate disclosures. Just outside, everyday workers and middle-class taxpayers tallying their grocery bills worry about heavy taxes and billions lost to broken flood-control projects. Beyond our borders, foreign diplomats and investors arriving for our turn as ASEAN chair watch this divided screen with quiet alarm.

As Vice President Sara Duterte’s defense team streamlines its case, slashing its bank witness list to save time, Filipinos ask a plain question: Is this trial worth the stress, and where does it all end? To answer fairly, we must weigh both sides, the three possible endings, and how the world sees us trying to clean house while hosting the region.

The core reason this trial cannot be bypassed is constitutional: while a Vice President is in office, regular courts cannot file criminal cases against her. Impeachment is the only legal key capable of unlocking secret bank records and corporate filings.

To the international community, this transparency cuts both ways. While multi-billion-peso scandals unsettle foreign investors, governance analysts note that holding a high official publicly accountable under constitutional rules, rather than burying corruption behind executive privilege, is a vital, if painful, “reputational reset.” It signals that our democratic institutions still function.

Yet, public fatigue is entirely understandable. First, prosecutors earlier dropped three articles, including charges over P612.5 million in confidential funds and bribery, to focus solely on Article II. That left a technical dispute over whether annual asset forms match P4.4 billion in cumulative bank movements over two decades, robbing the public of a verdict on actual public fund usage.

Second, senator-judges are elected politicians, not impartial magistrates. Watching them debate voting rules makes many suspect that political survival and the 2028 presidential race will dictate the final tally, not pure justice.

Finally, there is the painful contrast with the flood-control scandal. While the Senate checks Davao corporate records, families have waded through floods caused by billions in missing infrastructure. Seeing swift political action against a rival Vice President while infrastructure corruption crawls through the courts feels deeply unfair to taxpayers.

As the Senate aims to wrap up before year’s end, three outcomes loom, each reshaping our domestic future and ASEAN standing: If she is convicted, Duterte immediately loses her job, is permanently barred from running for president in 2028, and cannot be pardoned. President Marcos Jr. nominates a replacement Vice President from Congress. She loses immunity and faces immediate criminal prosecution. If acquitted, Vice President Duterte serves until June 2028 and remains free to run for president, likely riding a wave of political momentum.

However, the paper trail remains intact for prosecutors to use once her term ends. If she resigns before the vote, stepping down removes her from office but does not carry a permanent 2028 electoral ban – meaning the Senate and Supreme Court could still pursue a verdict to settle her disqualification. Worse, she loses immunity immediately, exposing her to instant criminal charges and hold-departure orders.

Bottom line is, treating the flood-control mess and the impeachment trial as an “either/or” choice is a mistake. Stopping this trial tomorrow would not recover a single peso stolen from a collapsed river dike. Both crises spring from the same root: powerful officials treating public office as a shield.

As we welcome Southeast Asian neighbors to our shores, the world is watching to see if we are merely putting on a polished summit show or doing the hard work of institutional reform. This trial will not lower the price of rice tomorrow. It is noisy and exhausting. But in a country where an ordinary worker gets penalized immediately for a single tax error, asking the second-highest official to explain hundreds of millions under oath is not too much to ask.

The world is watching and yes, while it is not too much to ask the Vice President to be accountable and answer for her office, we the people must also demand the EXACT same accountability for all those involved in government decisions that have everything to do with how our hard-earned taxes are being spent.

Otherwise, all this is just a witch hunt because, accountability without fairness is just another form of power play. True justice requires that every official receives an impartial hearing and that fairness takes place across the entire board. Anything less is not justice. Loyalty to country will always trump loyalty to colors. It is time we start voting, demanding, and insisting on fairness like it.