House members stress: No impeachment talks vs VP

Members of the House of Representatives reiterated on Wednesday that there had been no talks of impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte, contrary to her claims that moves to oust her are “openly discussed” within the halls of the chamber.

“These are the things that our Vice President should be wary of because it’s difficult when someone reports without a basis,” House Deputy Majority Leader Janette Garin said in a briefing.

“It’s a waste of time that goes into useless matters. Again, I haven’t heard talks of an impeachment, nor did I see it among our colleagues,” she added.

To recall, Duterte on Tuesday accused House members of attempting to impeach her, citing her “friends” in the House, whom she claimed cannot speak for themselves out of fear.

The Vice President claimed that the purported plot is “openly discussed” by members of the House, and this came as no surprise, as she expected this “playbook” from those wishing for the downfall of her family.

“They want to bring down the Duterte family, not just in politics, but probably personally as well, because they even involved my husband, who is a private individual. They included him in their harassment,” Duterte said.

The Vice President’s statements come after former Customs intelligence officer Jimmy Guban implicated her, her brother Representative Paolo Duterte, her husband, Mans Carpio and former President Rodrigo Duterte’s presidential economic adviser, Michael Yang, in the smuggling of P11 billion worth of shabu hidden in magnetic lifters discovered at the Manila International Container Port in 2018.

Guban tagged Representative Duterte, Carpio, and Yang as the owners of the illicit drug shipment, which the other camp categorically denied, calling it “baseless” and “maliciously false.”

Garin, meanwhile, challenged the “intriguers” to come forward as she raised suspicions that the people behind the VP’s statement had a “vested interest” and were trying to “deceive” her.

She also denied that findings of the Commission on Audit on the utilization of Duterte’s office’s confidential funds in 2022 and 2023 would be used as one of the avenues to unseat her.

“The motion [made during the panel’s budget deliberations] came from Hon. France Castro, and I understand that the goal is to prove that the allocation of confidential funds is made in proper context,” Garin said.

Meantime, La Union Representative Paolo Ortega and 1-Rider Partylist Representative Ramon Gutierrez also denied allegations of impeachment, challenging the Vice President to namedrop her so-called friends to substantiate her claims.

“She should just identify her friends who said that [so that] they could verify if the information they are getting from the grapevine is correct. But here in the House of Representatives, nothing has been discussed,” Ortega said.

Meanwhile, Lanao del Norte Representative Zia Alonto Adiong expressed hope that “this rumor mongering would stop.”

“There is a saying that one word is enough for a wise man. How many times has it been said that there is no truth in that,” he lamented.

“This issue of impeachment, that’s why we don’t put credence on [this] issue because we know that this only creates disunity, create chaos politically. It’s counterproductive and it counters the efforts and the positive result of everything that we have done and everything that we continue to do,” he added.

Rumors about Duterte’s impeachment first circulated in mid-2023 following the alleged irregular transfer of the Office of the President of P125 million in confidential funds to the Office of the Vice President without “congressional authorization.”

The purported plot did not flourish as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his allies in the House were not receptive to the idea and dismissed it as mere intrigue.