Courtesy: Office of the Vice President
HOUSE trial spokesperson and Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong on Wednesday criticized Vice President Sara Z. Duterte’s answer to the Articles of Impeachment, saying it failed to directly address the allegations against her and merely repeated procedural objections that her camp has long raised.
During Kapihan sa Manila Bay, Alonto Adiong said the House prosecution panel expected the Vice President’s defense team to present substantive responses and evidence to refute the charges now pending before the Senate impeachment court.
“But what we didn’t expect is that the answers are still the same. It’s a non-answer to the articles of impeachment because they’ve been publicly questioning the process by which even the Supreme Court has already laid down guidelines,” Alonto Adiong said.
He noted that the Supreme Court (SC), in Duterte v. House of Representatives, affirmed the House’s exclusive power to initiate impeachment proceedings while requiring that due process be observed.
Alonto Adiong said the House Committee on Justice conducted extensive proceedings to determine whether the allegations contained in the impeachment complaints were supported by evidence establishing probable cause.
“What we’ve seen during the course of the confirmation hearings of the Justice Committee acting like a preliminary investigation is to set the tone whether these allegations contained in the complaints have backing, have material evidence to prove that indeed there is a probable cause. So klaro na po ‘yun,” he said.
The House spokesperson also pointed out that Duterte and her representatives were repeatedly invited to participate in the proceedings but chose not to attend.
“But the defense, parati po nilang sinasabi, despite the fact that they’ve been invited several times during the entire confirmation hearings, hindi po sila sumulpot,” he said.
The Articles of Impeachment accuse Duterte of misusing confidential funds, amassing unexplained wealth, bribing government officials, and issuing threats to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and former Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez.
Alonto Adiong said the latest filing by Duterte’s legal team appears aimed at persuading the Senate impeachment court to dismiss the case outright instead of addressing the allegations on their merits.
“So what they intend to actually achieve is for the impeachment court to dismiss the impeachment complaints, which I believe the Senate acting as impeachment court has no option to do that under the Constitution once they have taken jurisdiction and assumed jurisdiction over these complaints,” he said.
“The Senate need not to do anything other than to reach a decision whether to acquit or to convict the respondent, in this case the Vice President,” he said.
He said the public expected the Vice President’s answer to directly confront the accusations and provide evidence contradicting the charges.
“The people deserves to get straight answer from the Vice President, straight answer from the defense as to countering these allegations,” Alonto Adiong said.
Instead, he said, the filing largely rehashed earlier arguments questioning the validity of the impeachment process.
“So kung if they are willing to address and answer this allegation in the proper forum, we were expecting that they would also supply new counter evidences para pasinungalingan yung mga allegations. Kaya wala po. Ang ginawa lang po nila is yung rehash na sinasabi din po nila, questioning the entire process,” he said.
Alonto Adiong also noted that public support for allowing the impeachment proceedings to move forward continues to grow.
“Kasi 74% tumataas na po based on the recent surveys,” he said.
“The people themselves, the public themselves agree that the process has to go through and has to move forward. In this case, Senate should now proceed to the actual impeachment trial.”
The lawmaker also expressed confidence that senators understand their constitutional duty as members of the impeachment court and will allow the trial to proceed.
“I do firmly believe that our senators understand their constitutional duty because the House of Representatives has already performed our constitutional duty,” he said.
“Hindi pu-pwedeng ang i-recognize mo lang ay ‘yung constitutional duty ng Senado tapos iku-question mo ‘yung process kung paano ito in the first place napunta sa Senado,” he said.
Alonto Adiong said the impeachment proceedings have become more than a case against a sitting vice president and now serve as a test of the country’s constitutional institutions.
“It is actually our civic duty and in fact, based on the recent survey that came out, the ordinary Filipinos do understand that this is part of their civic duty to make sure that the Constitution stands and can weather political pressure,” he said.
“The Constitution is now under, parang tine-test natin ito. Hindi lang ito trial ng Bise Presidente. Ito rin po ay test kung gaano katibay, katatag ang ating Constitution,” Alonto Adiong said.
