China panics

China is in panic.

Its ambassador to Manila, Jing Quan, has made veiled threats. In the event of war, China can easily beat the Philippines, he said. Now if Manila wants to declare the envoy persona non grata or expel him for being brutal, just do it, says the Chinese embassy.

Beijing is telling Manila – “careful, careful with Sara Zimmerman Duterte. She is our girl. We know how to retaliate.”

Duterte, China’s best bet in their capturing political power here, is on the brink of extinction – as the sitting vice president, as the leader of the anti-Marcos movement and as the politician who will do the unthinkable – hand over our sovereignty to the Chinese and along with it, the West Philippine Sea. With Sara in power and in the pocket of the Chinese, the Chinese navy does not even need to patrol the Philippine coastline – from Batanes to Busuanga, a 1,000-km stretch of rough seas.

Conviction of Sara by the 20-member Senate impeachment court is imminent – for betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution. The case against her is Article II of the Articles of Impeachment signed by 257 congressmen, 81 percent of the entire House of Representatives membership.

Article II covers three major crimes, all breathtaking in concept, machination and execution:

1. Sara amassed unexplained wealth manifestly disportioncate to her lawful income and earnings during her incumbency as a Davao vice mayor, mayor and vice president. From 2007 to 2025, P4.4 billion moved, in and out, in the bank accounts of Sara and her husband, Manases Carpio.

In 18 years, 2007 to 2025, Sara and Manases earned only P85.34 million. Yet, experts claim Sara is worth P1.5 billion conservatively. At Sara’s age, 48, taipans Henry Sy Sr. and John Gokongwei could not even claim (at least to me in interviews) they had that much money. Tatang Henry and Big John made money the old fashioned way – through hard and honest work, “backbending work,” in the words of Henry.

Does Sara’s wealth come from: our tax money stolen from us (like the P612.5 million of confidential and intelligence funds), drug money, Chinese lobby money, illegal money, ill-gotten money, dirty money? Sara received P319 million from Chinese entities owned by the Chinese government, impeachment records showed.

2. She failed to fully and truthfully disclose all her and her spouse’s assets, liabilities and net worth in her statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs), including her SALNs for the years 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, when she was already VP.

3. Sara failed to divest, and instead she willfully continued, all her business interests during her tenure as VP for the years 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Sara is the Jollibee queen of the Philippine south. She has five hamburger-chicken outlets. Each Jollibee costs P35 million to open; so five outlets are easily P175 million. Compare that P175 million to her P85-million income.

Prosecution expert witness lawyer-CPA Alex Cabrera told the Senate court Sara committed a pattern of violations of the Constitution and relevant anti-graft laws, every year during 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Sara’s SALNs have been “untruthful because substantial assets (at least P817 million were undeclared) belonging to her and her spouse were not reported.”

Per Senate impeachment records, the P817 million undeclared during 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 includes P207.69 million of undeclared cash, P143 million worth of personal and real properties, P111.85 million of undeclared income, P142.19 million undeclared income from Cale88 and Metro City businesses and P212.6 million undeclared income from GenCorp. The P817-million total undeclared from 2022 to 2025 (four years) is 10 times the P85-million combined income of Sara and Manases from 2007 to 2025 (18 years).

Renato Corona, the 23rd chief justice, was impeached and convicted in 2011 for only one act of untruthful declaration of assets in his SALNs. He did not declare his dollar accounts, which by law are supposed to be secret. The senators who knew better declared Corona NOT guilty – Bongbong Marcos, Joker Arroyo, Miriam Defensor Santiago.

Sara’s untruthfulness in her SALNs is habitual and yearly, as if motivated by impunity. You know that attitude – “come and get me – if you can.”

If elections are held today, Sara wins as president by a mile – by more than 20 percent over her nearest rivals. She wins even in opposition-minded Metro Manila, though she loses badly in balance of Luzon where traditionally, voters elect the next president.

Knowing Duterte’s commanding leads in presidential surveys, China has become smug and aggressive in routinely harassing Filipino fishers and Philippine government vessels in the West Philippine Sea, the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) that includes the disputed Spratly islands (Kalayaan Island Group) and Scarborough Shoal (Bajo de Masinloc). In 2016, the International Court of Arbitration ruled that China has no historical rights to the islands by reason of its nine-dash-line map.

The Chinese thinking: “Why bother to be nice to the Philippine government and to the Filipino people?  After all, their next president (Sara) is in our pocket.”

The Senate impeachment court is about the change the geopolitics in the West Philippine Sea. The immense and compelling evidence against Sara before the impeachment court is such that up to 16 senators (instead of the minimum 14, exactly the number of ruling majority senators) will vote to convict her.

In impeachment, the bar to convict is very low. You don’t need proof beyond reasonable doubt to convict, unlike in an ordinary criminal case.

All that is needed is create doubt in the minds of the senators (who are generally savvy and brilliant, except for one or two who are very good at acting and play-acting): is Sara Duterte still fit to remain vice president? Is Sara Duterte fit to hold any public office – now and in the future?

*      *      *

Email: [email protected]