Sara betrayed the public trust

Betrayal of public trust. That plainly is the crime, in sum, of Sara Z. Duterte, who will be 46 this May 31. As vice president and as the secretary of the Department of Education from July 1, 2022 to June 24, 2024, she committed acts that are impeachable.

- TONY LOPEZ

As vice mayor of Davao City from 2007 to 2010 and city mayor from 2010 to 2022, she displayed a character and behavior that make her unfit to be in a public office, like unexplained wealth and ordering extrajudicial killings.

On Feb. 5, 2025, the House of Representatives sent to the Senate the 33-page, 9,038-word verified complaint for impeachment against Sara Duterte. The complaint cites seven grounds for her conviction, ouster as vice president and being banned for life from holding any government office. The evidence presented in the suit is damning and convincing. Only the most hardened political criminal will think Sara is not guilty.

This may explain why Senate President Francis Escudero, who was trained in criminal law at UP, hesitates to proceed forthwith with the trial of Sara. The turmoil and political fallout from Sara's conviction and ouster from her position will, to use my favorite cliché, be massive. He does not want history to remember him as the Senate president, acting as presiding officer of the Senate Impeachment Court, who convicted the first vice president ever to be impeached.

The charges against Sara:

1. She contracted an assassin to kill President Marcos Jr., First Lady Louise Araneta Marcos and Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez. She disclosed so herself on a nationwide TV broadcast, live.

2. She misused and malversed hundreds of millions of confidential funds under the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education.

For instance, in 11 days, from Dec. 21, 2022 to Dec. 31, 2022 (which included four holidays), she malversed P11.363 million, or P1.62 million every working day.