Easy to impeach, but hard to convict

Impeachment involves two head counts.

It’s easy to muster one-third of congressmen – 106 of 316 – to impeach VP Sara Duterte.

Congressmen have herd mentality. They enact laws almost unanimously. They’ll sign to impeachment even on toilet paper.

But convicting Sara is improbable.

Two-thirds of senators – 16 of 24 – must find Sara guilty. It doesn’t matter that there are only 23, after Sonny Angara joined the Cabinet. Supreme Court jurisprudence counts total seats: 24.

Acquittal needs only nine votes. Sara easily can get that.

President Bongbong Marcos likely has computed that acquittal will win. That’s why he told congressmen to forget impeachment:

“Why waste time on it? It will tie down the House and Senate. It will just take up our time. And for what? For nothing.”

Senators who’ll vote for acquittal are obvious.

Though mum, they’re already shooting full of holes the complaint endorsed by Akbayan Rep. Perci Cendaña. The grounds and counts:

• Graft and corruption:

(1) Unaccounted P125-million OVP confidential-intelligence fund in 2022;

(2) Unaccounted P500-million and P150-million OVP-DepEd CIF, 2023;

(3) Refusal to attend House budget deliberations for 2025;

(4) Squandering P2.735-billion CIF as three-term Davao City mayor;

(5) Tried to get P500-million and P150-million OVP-DepEd CIF for 2024;

(6) Left DepEd with P12-billion disallowances, suspensions and charges;

(7) Unliquidated P7-billion cash advances in DepEd, 2023;

(8) Unutilized P15.4 billion in DepEd, 2023;

(9) Rigged bidding of P8-billion DepEd laptops;

• Bribery:

(10) P111-million unexplained wealth in bank accounts as mayor;

(11) Hundreds-million unexplained receipts from drug lords, 2007-2015;

(12) Unreported in Statements of Assets, Liabilities, Net Worth as mayor;

(13) Illegal law practice as VP by maintaining her old law firm;

• Betrayal of public trust:

(14) Abandoning typhoon victims to attend concert abroad, July 2024;

(15) Refusal to condemn China’s bullying in West Philippine Sea;

• Other high crimes:

(16) Extrajudicial killings as Davao City mayor, 2011-2013 and 2016-2022;

(17) Implied threat on high officials in snubbing 2024 State of the Nation;

(18) Incompetence as mayor when father Rodrigo Duterte was president;

(19) Coddling, enabling “disgraced” pastor Apollo Quiboloy;

(20) Throwing a tantrum when 75 of her 470 bodyguards were removed;

(21) Accumulating ill-gotten wealth via faulty SALNs, 2007-2017;

(22) Receipt of funds from known drug lords as Davao City official;

(23) Psychological incapacity as VP in wanting to behead BBM, October 2024;

(24) Plotting to kill First Couple, Speaker Martin Romualdez, November 2024.

Counts 4, 10, 11, 12, 16, 18, 21 and 22 won’t wash. Sara can’t be impeached as VP for offenses before her tenure. Her mayoralty doesn’t matter. Such jurisprudence arose from past impeachments.

Counts 3, 5, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19 and 20 won’t wash either. So what if she absented from House proceedings? So what if she sought CIF in 2024, when Congress denied it anyway? Does keeping her law firm open mean she’s practicing law?

So what if she left Philippine area of responsibility ahead of typhoon? So what if, like PRRD, she loves Xi Jinping? So what if she called herself “designated survivor” when snubbing BBM’s speech?

Since Quiboloy is on trial for sexual abuse and human trafficking, shouldn’t he be presumed innocent and his case be taboo from political exercise? And so what if Sara ranted against reduction of bodyguards?

Counts 1, 2, 6, 7, 8 and 9 are premature. The House committee on good government is still scrutinizing Sara’s OVP-DepEd spending. Its bases are mere audit observation memos. AOMs are initial assessments, which is why the Commission on Audit is asking OVP-DepEd for details.

Only Counts 23 and 24 carry weight. But impeaching Sara now for death threats will politicize NBI and PNP criminal charges against her.

Nine likely acquitters:

(1) Bato Dela Rosa, loyalist of Duterte father and daughter;

(2) Bong Go, PRRD’s decades-long aide;

(3) Robin Padilla, president of PRRD’s PDP-Laban;

(4) Imee Marcos, BBM’s sister who convinced Sara to run as VP;

(5) Jinggoy Estrada, whom PRRD bailed out of plunder raps;

(6) Cynthia Villar, NP chairman who supported PRRD’s 2016 run;

(7) Mark Villar, PRRD’s public works secretary;

(8) Alan Peter Cayetano, PRRD’s 2016 VP running mate;

(9) Pia Cayetano, NP stalwart and sister of Alan Peter.

There’s chatter that congressmen will push for impeachment even if it ends in acquittal. The point is supposedly to tie down re-electionists Dela Rosa and Go as jurists so they can’t campaign.

Then again, such ploy will also tie down re-electionists Imee, Pia, Lito Lapid, Francis Tolentino and Bong Revilla – all members of BBM’s 2025 senatorial slate. So, no go.

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