Impeachment of VP Sara Duterte needed before plunder raps — House leader

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte must first be impeached before any graft or plunder charges can be filed, a House leader said on Monday, October 28. 

Rep. Joel Chua (Manila, 3rd District), who heads the House inquiry into Duterte's alleged misuse of public funds, named two potential grounds for the vice president’s impeachment: graft and corruption, and betrayal of public trust. 

Sounding confident that Duterte will be impeached, Chua said at a press conference, “So after the impeachment, once proven or impeached, that’s the time for cases to be filed against the vice president.”

What immunity does a VP have? While the 1987 Constitution does not state that the president and vice president are immune from prosecution, the Supreme Court ruled in the 2019 De Lima vs. Duterte case that a president is immune from criminal and civil cases only while in office. 

As there is no law explicitly granting the vice president the same privileges, some lawyers, including Romulo Macalintal, suggested in 2021 that presidential immunity could be extended to the vice president.

However, Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra stated in 2019, when he was a Justice secretary, that the vice president is not immune from criminal charges while in office.

Whether charges could be filed against the vice president, Duterte is an impeachable official according to the Constitution, which means that a case will not be sufficient to remove her from office. 

Safehouses. Chua referenced the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability’s findings from October 17, revealing that the Office of the Vice President (OVP) spent P16 million in confidential funds on 34 safe houses within just 11 days in December 2022.

Audit reports indicated that rental payments ranged from P250,000 to P1 million per day. Given this amount, lawmakers calculated that the most expensive safehouse rented by the OVP cost P91,000 per day for 11 days.

The committee, however, was quick to point out the lack of proper documentation for the rental payments, emphasizing the difficulty in verifying the identities of those who received acknowledgment receipts due to illegible handwriting or the use of