HOUSE Committee on Public Accounts Chairperson Terry L. Ridon of Bicol Saro Party-list had a blunt message for Vice President Sara Z. Duterte and her defense team: stop hiding behind statements and press conferences and show up.
The vice president has been issuing social media statements after each impeachment hearing of the Committee on Justice, discrediting the proceedings, its resource persons, and the documentary evidence that speaks for itself.
Some of the most explosive committee findings include the non-disclosure of cash on hand or bank deposits in her Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALNs) for six straight years, as well as the P6.7 billion worth of covered and suspicious transactions flagged by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) from 2006 to 2024.
Committee members found this to be a glaring contradiction—if the vice president was transacting millions to billions of pesos, why were none of those amounts reflected in her SALNs?
Duterte, however, has refused to defend herself during the hearings or even directly answer the serious allegations against her, despite the open invitation the justice committee has maintained for her after each resource person.
According to one of her defense counsels and spokespersons, Atty. Michael Poa, the vice president declares all her assets—including cash and bank deposits—in her SALNs. However, instead of listing them as a separate line item, they were placed under the vague catch-all category “Others.”
For Ridon, the appropriate forum to put the allegations of misused confidential funds, unexplained wealth, bribery, and grave threats to rest is not social media—it is the impeachment proceedings themselves.
Whether she appears before the House of Representatives or the Senate, should the case go to trial, the lawmaker believes it is where true accountability will be upheld.
“See you with the vice president at the last House impeachment hearing or at the Senate impeachment trial,” Ridon said.
“Doon tayo magtutuos,” he added.
The Committee on Justice is scheduled to hold its final hearing on April 29, where the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) will present its findings on the probe it conducted on the death threats Duterte allegedly made against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez.
At that same hearing, the panel will vote on whether probable cause exists for each allegation in the impeachment complaints—a vote that could ultimately send Duterte’s case to the Senate for trial.
