Let’s hunt witches

How many more among the soon-to-be senator-judges in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte would, like Juan Miguel Zubiri, want to make the public believe that her trial — if it happens at all — is nothing but an effort to push her out of the running in the 2028 presidential contest?

Did Zubiri know what he was talking about when he openly declared in a forum with members of media in attendance on Monday, 7 July, that “of course I have some biases; I think that it is a witch hunt because they want to remove her from public service para yung iba makaupo at yung iba ay mawawalan ng kandidato na kalaban pagdating sa halalan ng 2028 (so others can take her place and others won’t have a rival in the 2028 elections).”

Was he aware that by saying that, he had revealed how he intends to vote; that is, guilty or not guilty of the accusations, he will most likely acquit the VP — because to him, the whole exercise will merely just be a move to derail her presidential ambition in 2028?

He is no better than the Duterte loyalists — Senators Imee Marcos and Robin Padilla — who after taking their oath as impeachment judges, accompanied the Vice President to Malaysia for a Philippine Independence Day celebration where Padilla went onstage and anointed himself campaign manager of a “Sara-Imee” tandem in the next presidential elections, even as Senator Marcos made a rousing pitch of support for Duterte.

Certainly, fraternizing openly with the person on whom you will soon render (supposedly) impartial judgment, and calling the impeachment trial “a witch hunt,” raises eyebrows, making apparent to not a few that these senator-judges’ overt bias courts public mistrust.

Several quarters, particularly House prosecutors, have taken issue with the labeling of the Duterte impeachment trial as a “witch hunt.” Iloilo Representative Lorenz Defensor blasted Zubiri for saying the impeachment complaint was a “witch hunt” without even listening to the evidence first.

For her part, former senator and now Mamamayang Liberal (ML) Party-list Representative Leila de Lima said that if anyone had been subjected to a “witch hunt,” that person would be herself.

To recall, the former senator and justice secretary was thrown in jail during the administration of Rodrigo Duterte, the Vice President’s father, after she dared to question the former president’s bloody drug war.

She was hit with various drug-trafficking charges in 2017 not long after she launched a Senate inquiry into Duterte’s anti-drugs campaign which saw the extrajudicial killing of thousands.

After six years in detention, all the drugs-related charges filed against her were overturned and she was acquitted by the courts. She turned out to be no “witch” at all.

“You talk about a witch hunt if there’s no basis, if it’s just meant to harass, or persecute someone,” De Lima said, in reaction to Zubiri’s “witch hunt” labeling of the VP’s impeachment trial.

In the VP’s case, she was impeached after 215 members of the House of Representatives last 5 February put their signatures on a fourth impeachment complaint.

The complaint outlined seven articles of impeachment which cited, among others, death threats made by the VP against the President, his wife, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez. Another statement she made during an October 2024 press conference expressed her desire to behead the President.

The articles of impeachment likewise accuse the VP of misusing confidential funds amounting to at least P255 million in alleged “ghost” expenses, including supposed rental payments amounting to a whopping P1.45 million each for 34 safehouses in only 11 days.

The House committee on good government had also investigated P500 million spent by her office and P112.5 million by the Department of Education which she had headed in 2022 and 2023.

Discrepancies in the acknowledgement receipts used to justify the spending were flagged, with the Philippine Statistics Authority failing to find records of the birth, marriage or death of the listed recipients of the funds.

These and the other charges in the articles of impeachment against Duterte bear reiterating until it becomes absolutely clear to the Filipino people what exactly the VP is charged with, and what she’ll stand trial for.

The people must know — they HAVE to know — if she is fit to reign as Philippine Top Mama in 2028. And, if that happens, and she turns out to be actually inept, corrupt, and everything else she is accused of, whom to point an accusing finger at for allowing the country to be placed in the hands of someone who could very well plunge us all into a boiling cauldron of misery for six terribly long years.