3rd Sara impeach rap scrutinized for sufficiency in substance

MEMBERS of the House Committee on Justice on Tuesday debated exhaustively on the sufficiency in substance of the first of the two remaining impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte before putting the matter to a vote on Wednesday.

- BY WENDELL VIGILIA Reporter

The panel, chaired by Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro, tackled the third complaint filed by a group of priests, nurses and lawyers led by Fr. Joel Saballa last February 9 after earlier setting aside the first complaint filed by the Makabayan Coalition for violating the constitutional one-year bar rule on filing impeachment complaints against the same official within the same year.

Lawmakers also did not have to subject the second complaint filed by Akbayan and Tindig Pilipinas since it was already withdrawn last Monday after the complainants decided to just support the Saballa et al. complaint.

Today, Wednesday, the Luistro committee will resume its hearing to determine if the fourth complaint filed by lawyer Nathaniel Cabrera last February 18, which was endorsed by Deputy Speaker Paolo Ortega V and Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr., is sufficient in substance.

During the Tuesday hearing, Quezon City Rep. Jesus Suntay, a member of the minority bloc, took the cudgels for the Vice President, insisting that all six grounds cited in the Saballa complaint, which was endorsed by Rep. Leila de Lima (PL, ML), are bereft of substance and should be dismissed by the panel.

For Cagayan Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, only the first of the six grounds, particularly the allegation that accuses the Vice President of betrayal of public trust for misusing P500 million in confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President for 2022 and 2023, was sufficient in substance.

"As far as betrayal of public trust, there is recital of facts, there is substance to go to trial," Rodriguez said before he started to find and expose loopholes in the rest of the grounds cited by the Saballa complaint.