3rd impeachment complaint filed vs VP Sara

A third impeachment complaint has been filed against Vice President Sara Duterte, this time by a group of lawyers and clergy, citing as grounds her misuse of hundreds of millions of pesos of her confidential funds, including when she was secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd).

- By JOSE RODEL CLAPANO and DELON PORCALLA

Lead counsel of the complainants Amando Virgil Ligutan said they filed the third impeachment case against the Vice President for her "culpable violation of the Constitution, bribery, graft and corruption, plunder, malversation and technical malversation, and betrayal of public trust."

The 12 complainants were priests from the Diocese of Novaliches, as well as from the Carmelites, and the Congregation of the Mission. The other complainants were from the Union of Lawyers of Mindanao.

Camarines Sur Rep. Gabriel Bordado and AAMBIS-OWA party-list Rep. Lex Anthony Cris Colada endorsed the third impeachment complaint against Duterte.

Ligutan said they based their complaint on the result of the hearings conducted by the House committee on good government and public accountability chaired by Manila Rep. Joel Chua on Duterte's alleged misuse of P612.5 million confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and DepEd.

"We have two endorsements from the congressmen. The impeachment complaint is based on how the Vice President illegally disbursed the confidential funds entrusted by the Republic of the Philippines to her," he said.

"This is based on the fact of the disbursement of the confidential fund, the disbursement was not properly done. The use of fictitious individuals," he added.

He said that Duterte's failure to account for the P500 million confidential funds of the OVP and the P112.5 million of the DepEd "constitutes ground for her impeachment as the sitting vice president."

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