- VP Sara declines father’s offer to pay lawyers in her impeachment case
FORMER President Rodrigo Duterte offered to shoulder the legal fees for his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, who is facing the biggest fight of her political career.
According to VP Sara, she already formed a team of lawyers to prepare for the impeachment proceedings.
“We have an inventory of possible cases that will be filed. We have lawyers assigned for each case so that we ensure that all the cases have lawyers focused on each case,” she said in a press conference on Wednesday.
“Nagsabi si Pangulong Duterte na magpapadala siya ng pera para sa pambayad ng mga abogado kasi alam niya na napakaraming abogado ngayon,” she said.
However, the vice president declined her father’s generous offer.
“Pero nagsabi na rin ako through my brother na wag na lang siya magpadala ng pera dahil nakapaghanda na naman kami para sa impeachment case,” she added.
She revealed that their preparations began when Act Party-list Rep. France Castro, a convicted child abuser, started calling for her impeachment.
“The moment na nakita namin na tuloy-tuloy ang attacks against me, naghanda na din kami para sa mga abogado,” the vice president said.
For now, two impeachment complaints have been filed against VP Sara in the House of Representatives: one by the Akbayan Partylist and another by the Makabayan Bloc.
A third complaint is reportedly being prepared against the vice president but it has yet to be formally filed in the House.
Among the impeachable offenses cited in the complaints against Duterte was a betrayal of public trust after the vice president allegedly committed a gross abuse of discretionary powers” over the P612.5 million confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education from December 2022 until the third quarter of 2023.
Screenshot photo of Rhoda Grace B Saron
