With her trial to begin on July 6, 2026, a heat wave has struck the camp of Sara Zimmerman Duterte, the first Philippine vice president to be impeached twice, by huge numbers, by members of the House of Representatives.
The Vice President is under intense pressure to come forward, face accountability and explain why she did, if indeed, she did, commit the allegations in the Articles of Impeachment signed by 257 congressmen – more than the one third (or 81 percent of the 316 members of the House) required by the Constitution to impeach an impeachable official.
Under the Constitution, the impeachable officials are the president, vice president, the justices of the Supreme Court, members of the Constitutional Commissions, and the ombudsman. Grounds for impeachment include culpable violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust and other high crimes.
The charges against Sara, our 15th vice president, include:
• Systemic misuse, misappropriation and irregular liquidation of confidential funds totalling P612.5 million – P500 million released to the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and P112.5 million released by the Department of Education (DepEd) which she headed as a member of the Cabinet, June 30, 2022 to July 19, 2024. This failure is a culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption and a betrayal of public trust.
Sara spent P125-million confidential funds in just 24 hours on Dec. 20, 2022, received by persons who did not exist, dead or alive. Of 667 names, for instance, of people submitted as having received Sara’s DepEd monies, 398 did not have birth, death or marital records. In the OVP, of 1,922 names of people having received Sara’s doleouts, at least 1,287 did not have birth, death or marital records. Sara claimed among those who received her OVP money were Mary Grace Piattos, Milky Secuya and Kokoy Villamin. They did not and do not exist, per civil registry records, dead or alive.
Anyway, Mary Grace Piattos, Milky Secuya and Kokoy will probably be summoned to testify by the Senate impeachment court. If they don’t show up, they will be declared in contempt of court.
Ironic. Given that one of the Senate court’s notable members, a certain Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, has been a consistent no-show in Senate sessions. And yes, Bato has a civil registry record showing he was born in the Philippines. He is alive, although a little overweight and prone to stumbling occasionally when climbing stairs, especially when being chased by beautiful lady agents of the NBI.
During Sara’s stint at DepEd, Filipino 15-year-olds, according to international tests, don’t know how to read, how to write and how to count beyond 20. Even if they can read, they don’t understand what they read. They cannot explain the simple whys and hows of things.
• Unexplained wealth manifestly disproportionate to her lawful income and earnings during her incumbency as a public official. This is a betrayal of public trust and/or culpable violation of the Constitution.
• Failure to fully and truthfully disclose all her and her spouse’s asset, liabilities and net worth in her statement of assets liabilities and net worth (SALN), including her SALN for the years 2022, 2023 and 2024. This is a betrayal of public trust and/or culpable violation of the Constitution.
• Failure to divest and instead willfully continuing all her business interests during her tenure as vice president for the years 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. This is a betrayal of public trust and/or culpable violation of the Constitution.
• Giving monetary gifts and payments to Department of Education officials to induce the violation and circumvention of procurement and other related laws. This is bribery, graft and corruption, culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust.
• She contracted assassins to kill the President, the First Lady and former speaker Martin Romualdez, made grave threats and actively incited sedition against the republic. This constitutes culpable violation of the Constitution, high crimes and betrayal of public trust. And sedition.
The evidence and witnesses by the House committee on justice against VP Sara show, beyond reasonable doubt, she is guilty.
VP Sara’s camp knows about it. Accordingly, they have resorted to technicalities to delay if not prevent her trial and subsequent conviction. They also helped trigger the May 11, 2026 Senate coup to replace Senate president Tito Sotto with Alan Peter Cayetano, which backfired badly.
In 2025, the Supreme Court declared Sara’s first impeachment unconstitutional – on a technicality. The impeachment was signed by 215 congressmen. But the high court claimed there was no due process. Ironically, in making the decision, the SC itself violated the two so-called principles of law – grave abuse of discretion (GAD) and due process. The SC abused its so-called constitutional right – or duty – “to settle actual controversies involving rights that are legally demandable and enforceable and to determine if any branch or instrumentality of government has acted with grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack of or excess of jurisdiction.”
Undaunted, on May 11, 2026, the House again impeached Sara, this time, by a vote of 257 yes, 25 against, with nine congressmen abstaining.
The overwhelming yes vote – 257 duly elected people’s representatives or 81 percent of all the country’s congressional or party-list districts –represents a huge loss of trust and a loss of mandate, nationwide, from north to south. Never has a ranking public official, one who got the highest number of votes in the 2022 national elections (32 million, 61 percent of the votes cast for vp), been denied a mandate by her constituents – not once, but twice.
In 2022, 61 percent of the people wanted Sara as their vice president, their second highest official.
In 2026, 81 percent of the people, through their duly elected representatives, want Sara out – as vice president and, futurely, from being elected or appointed to any public office. She is abusive, corrupt, a thief, a danger to the Republic of the Philippines.
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