EDITORIAL - The issue is accountability

Impeachment is a political exercise, but the underlying principle must be public accountability. Certain quarters expressed dismay when the House of Representatives speedily and overwhelmingly dismissed the impeachment complaints filed against President Marcos.

The House declared the impeachment complaints, which included anomalies in the national budgets signed by the President, insufficient in both form and substance, and lacking in evidence.

Members of the House will again be subjected to public scrutiny as they tackle the four impeachment complaints – the latest one yesterday afternoon – filed against Vice President Sara Duterte.

The scrutiny will be closer after the Vice President formally declared yesterday what everyone had expected: that she would run for president in 2028.

This allows her to dismiss accusations against her as mere politicking – although she has been saying this even before her formal announcement of her plans for 2028.

Also, as even some of those in the Duterte camp noted, the declaration can also solidify support among lawmakers for her presidential bid, allowing her to identify who is for or against her, and blunt the impeachment effort.

The House was expected to tackle the first three impeachment complaints yesterday, but it was postponed. It’s unclear if this was due to the Vice President’s announcement, which she prefaced with a diatribe against President Marcos, or because the House waited for the filing of the fourth and possibly final impeachment complaint late in the afternoon.

Most of the charges in the complaints were in the Articles of Impeachment filed in 2024 during the 19th Congress. Several issues were tackled in congressional inquiries on the alleged misuse of confidential funds by the Office of the Vice President and by the Department of Education when it was headed by Duterte.

Those issues remain unresolved. The Supreme Court ruling that declared the first impeachment effort unconstitutional did not touch on the merits of the complaints. The public is expecting a decisive resolution in the 20th Congress.

With her formal declaration, the Vice President can say that the impeachment effort is meant to eliminate her from the 2028 presidential race. She has in fact been saying this since the initiation of the original impeachment case in 2024.

While there is some truth to this, the congressional probes also unearthed numerous questionable issues involving fund disbursements in the OVP and DepEd under her watch.

In declaring her bid for the nation’s highest office, the Vice President promised good governance. This starts with transparency and accountability, notably in the utilization of public funds in her offices. In assessing the impeachment case against the Vice President, lawmakers cannot ignore accountability in the name of political expediency.