Vice President Sara Duterte’s declaration of her readiness to assume the presidency is actually a desperate ploy to save herself. Seventy days from now (Nov. 27), she will again be a subject for impeachment.
Without Chiz Escudero as Senate president to manipulate the process in her favor and the possible absence of Sen. Ronaldo Dela Rosa (who is expected to be in detention at The Hague by then), it is the position of the vice president that is likely to be vacated soon, not the presidency.
Although the vice president is not immune from suit, the Constitution provides that the vice president, like the president, the members of the Supreme Court, the members of the Constitutional Commissions, and the Ombudsman, “may be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, culpable violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, graft and corruption, other high crimes, or betrayal of public trust.”
If Duterte is ousted as vice president by impeachment, that would spell the end of her political career because she would be disqualified from holding any office in the country. She would be open to charges, some of them enumerated in the Articles of Impeachment that the House of Representatives transmitted to the Senate in February.
