The campaign for the 2028 presidential elections has begun.
The arena for the first round of the battle is the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte which is scheduled to start on July 30.
Public attention is now on the 24 senators of the 20th Congress who will sit as judges in the impeachment trial including the 12 who won in the May 12 midterm elections.
The 24, in alphabetical order, are : Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV; Alan Peter Cayetano; Pilar Juliana “Pia” Cayetano; Ronald Dela Rosa; Jose Victor “JV” Ejercito; Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, Jr.;
Francis Joseph “Chiz” Escudero; Sherwin “Win” Gatchalian; Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go; Ana Theresia “Risa” Hontiveros; Panfilo “Ping” Lacson; Lorna Regina “Loren” Legarda;
Manuel “Lito” Lapid; Rodante Marcoleta; Maria Imelda “Imee” Marcos; Robinhood Ferdinand “Robin” Padilla; Francis Pancratius “Kik”” Pangilinan;
Vicente “Tito” Sotto III; Erwin Tulfo; Rafael Tulfo;Emmanuel Joel Villanueva: Camille Lydia Villar; and Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri.
The prosecutors
The House of Representatives impeached Duterte on Feb. 05 on four charges of graft and corruption, bribery, betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes after a series of hearings conducted by the House Committees on Dangerous Drugs,Public Order and Safety, Human Rights, and Public Accounts popularly referred to as Quadcom.
The chosen prosecutors include newly-elected representatives Leila de Lima of Mamamayang Liberal partylisy and Jose Manuel “Che” Diokno of Akbayan partylist. Other members of the prosecution panel are Romeo Acop of Antipolo’s 2nd district; Joel Chua. 3rd district Manila; Lorenz Defensor, 3rd district Iloilo; Jonathan Keith Flores, 2nd district Bukidnon; Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez, 1-Rider partylist; Marcelino Libanan of the 4Ps partylist; Gerville Luistro 2nd district, Batangas; Arnan Panaligan, 1st district, Oriental Mindoro; and Ysabel Maria Zamora, San Juan.
Two-thirds (16) senators’ votes are needed to convict Duterte, remove her from the vice president position and from the line of succession. If convicted, she would be perpetually banned from holding public office.
Duterte needs eight votes to block her conviction.
As long as Sara is next in the line of succession, Marcos, who is struggling with a declining popularity, cannot completely feel secure about his presidency. The threat was clearly articulated by her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte to Maj. Gen. Nicolas Torre III, director of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, when he was being arrested March 11 upon arrival from Hongkong, to be brought to The Hague. He warned:- “Paano kung maging presidente si Inday bukas.Eeh ‘di waswas tayong lahat dito.”
Even if Marcos completes his six-year term, Sara ascending to the presidency in 2028 would be a dreadful prospect for him and his allies.
Will there be a Bato vote?
Senator-judges are supposed to be non-partisan but four of them- De la Rosa, Go, Padilla and Marcoleta- are known loyalists of the former president, who won as Davao City mayor but is currently detained at the detention center of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands for the charge of crimes against humanity of murder in connection with his brutal war on drugs.
It is generally expected that they will manifest their loyalty to the older Duterte by voting for the acquittal of the daughter. That means, she still needs four more. She is expected to get payback votes from Imee Marcos and Villar whom she endorsed in the last few days before election day. That makes six votes. One may identify the possible sources of the remaining two votes that she needs. But it all depends on the priority interests of senator-judges.
It’s not sure if De la Rosa would be able to vote because as the implementor of Duterte’s war on drugs that killed some 30,000 people, he is next in the list of ICC to be charged of the same crime against humanity of murder.
According to sources knowledgeable with ICC proceedings, the warrant of arrest for De la Rosa may be served in October.
If he is not physically present during the voting in the impeachment trial, that’s minus one for Sara.
Will Sara’s acquittal favor Bong Go?
A political observer said, Sara cannot be sure of Bong Go’s vote.
It is not a secret that although they both identify with the former president, Go and Sara are not the best of friends. Being the topnotcher in the May 12 elections puts Go in a position to vie for leadership of the Duterte extensive political machinery. It would serve him well to clear the path of competitors as early as opportunity presents.
Faulty narrative that impeachment trial is a political exercise
It is common to hear and read comments saying an impeachment trial is in reality a political exercise and not a judicial proceeding.
Lawyer Joel Butuyan, one of the five Filipino ICC-accredited lawyers, takes exception to this disturbing narrative: ”Anyone who says that an impeachment trial in the Senate is a political exercise, should be held in contempt of the Filipino people, and detained for one week in a room that plays nonstop a recording of the profanities spewed by VP Sara,” he wrote in his column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Butuyan further said:“ To say that impeachment is a political exercise is to lay the very wrong predicate that our senators have the license to decide on the basis of political considerations such as partisanship and horse trading, and not on the guilt or innocence of the official on trial,”
Prominent lawyer Lorna Kapunan, in an interview with in Christian Esguerra’s Fact First, said the public will be scrutinizing the senator-judges how they dispense justice and how they appreciated the pieces of evidence presented during the trial.
Opening of Rodrigo-Sara Duterte joint BPI account
The BPI (Julia Vargas, Pasig City) account under the name of Rodrigo Roa Duterte and daughter Sarah Z. Duterte is expected to be presented by the prosecution during the trial. The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) is also expected to be summoned to give information on the sources of not less than P211 million deposits that the Dutertes did not include in their 2014 Statement of Assets and Liabilities and Networth (SALN).
Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV exposed the Dutertes’ BPI bank accounts in April 2016, less than two weeks before the presidential elections that Rodrigo Duterte won. The account showed transactions amounting to not less than P2.2 billion.
Trillanes submitted to the Senate copies of the bank records on Oct. 3, 2017, after delivering his privilege speech as well as to the Ombudsman as supporting evidence in his complaint of plunder against the two. With Duterte in power, both the Senate and the Ombudsman, didn’t touch the documents.
But, with the exemption to the bank secrecy law provided to impeachment cases, the sources of the huge deposits to the Dutertes accounts can now be scrutinized.
An examination by Trillanes’ office of Dutertes’ bank account deposits showed manager’s checks from Sammy Uy, who was identified as a drug lord by self-confessed member of the Davao Death Squad, Arturo Lascañas.
The checks —ranging from P7 million to P10 million each — totaling almost P134 million were in the name of Duterte and members of his family – Sara, Paolo, Sebastian and Cielito S. Avanceña, his long-time partner.
Trillanes took note of “a pattern of periodic credits/deposits” in the Duterte accounts every March and October, which, he said, coincided with the “periodic encashment of checks” during those months.
The Rodrigo and Sara Duterte joint bank account entries are expected to yield more information that the public will find mind-boggling, interesting and important when they vote again in 2028.
Kapunan said last week’s election showed an enlightened electorate. The results were both an appeal and demand to current as well as aspiring political leaders for respect. It’s a notice as well to the senator-judges in the Duterte impeachment trial.
Be First to Comment