Manila, Philippines – The House Justice Committee during the first week of March started the proceedings for the four verified impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte.
During the process, the first case was set-aside, the second withdrawn, while the 3rd and 4th complaints were determined as sufficient in form and in substance.
Ten days after the determination, Duterte filed her reply regarding the complaints on Monday afternoon.
Duterte’s camp submitted a Consolidated Verified Answer Ad Cautelam— a precautionary reply without directly answering the allegations stated in the complaints.
Her defense team noted that there is no need to answer as there are no ultimate facts to support the allegations.
They referred to it as mere conclusions and exaggerations and the complainants failed to provide evidence that the accusations cited in the complaints are impeachable offenses.
With this, her camp is seeking the dismissal of the impeachment complaints.
This is still aside from alleged violation of her right to due process and double standards of House Justice’s proceedings.
Her camp argued that the standards employed by the committee in the determination of the VP Sara’s complaints’ sufficiency is not uniform with how they handled President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. impeachment cases.
In an interview, Duterte said that the move of the committee to subpoena her financial documents is case abuse and law-bending.
THIRD COMPLAINANTS WAIVE RIGHT TO REPLY ON DUTERTE’S ANSWERS
On the other hand, the third complainants led by Rev. Fr. Joel Saballa on Monday filed a manifestation in response to Duterte’s reply.
The manifestation states the group’s waiving of their right to submit a reply regarding Duterte’s answers.
The group’s legal team noted that despite the reply, Duterte failed to actually deny each and every one of the material allegations included in their complaint.
With Duterte not defending her case, the team sees no reason to submit a respective reply regarding her answer.