THE MOVE to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte might be solidified after 2025 local and national elections, Amirah Lidasan, Makabayan coalition Moro activist said on Monday.
In a press conference at the Coffee at Yellow Hauz on Nov. 25, Lidasan, who is also one of the Makabayan senatorial slate, said the composition of the Congress will matter on the move to impeach VP Sara.
“How people in Congress would push for the impeachment, nakasalalay sa komposisyon nila sa loob ng (depends on the composition inside) Congress after election,” Lidasan said.
As for the basis of the filing, she said the alleged misuse of funds of the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education, when VP Sara was the secretary, is “enough” to show the public that corruption is happening in both the offices.
“Matindi na ang lumabas sa hearings on good governance sa congress at makikita natin na ang laki ng pera na nilustay (we could see how much money was squandered), unexplained saan ang mga use at ito ay matinding basis ng corruption,” she said.
The Makabayan bloc also called for Duterte’s impeachment in a picket rally on Monday at the House of Representatives South Gate during the seventh hearing of the House committee on good government and public accountability.
Lidasan also took a swipe at the OVP chief of staff Atty. Zuleika Lopez, who she said had a background as a graft investigator, and yet “graft and corruption that she is hiding is very evident.”
Lopez had served as a graft investigator at the Office of the Ombudsman in Mindanao until 2007 before she was appointed as Davao City Administrator in 2010 when VP Sara was the mayor.
“Maybe she knows how to divert the issue sa nangyayari ngayon because she’s not answering yung mga katanungan ng mga congressman ng committee and yet nakikita mo hindi pwedeng hindi siya maalam sa funds use because she is the right woman and kasama ni VP,” she said.
Recently, Lopez was hospitalized after suffering a panic attack when committee chair, Rep. Joel Chua, signed an order to transfer her to the Women’s Correctional Facility on Nov. 22 instead of her detention room inside the House of Representatives.
The lawyer was detained in the HOR after being cited in contempt for supposed “undue interference” in the panel’s investigation into the confidential funds of the OVP and the DepEd when the vice president was the secretary.
During the panel’s hearing on Nov 20. ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro moved to cite Lopez for contempt, due to the OVP requests made to the Commission on Audit (COA) to refrain from giving the House audit observations on OVP’s confidential fund use. Castro also moved to extend her detention for another five days, which the committee approved.
