Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) expresses deep concern and disappointment over the House prosecution team’s decision to drop the impeachment charges involving VP Sara Duterte’s misuse of confidential and intelligence funds and her threats against Pres. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Marcos, and former Speaker Martin Romualdez.
While the move is intended to simplify and speed up the impeachment proceedings, it may come at the expense of the very purpose of impeachment: to hold the highest officials of the land accountable for their wrongdoing.
Impeachment is not simply about securing a conviction. It is a constitutional mechanism for investigating and establishing accountability for serious abuses of public office. It is an opportunity to publicly examine the evidence, establish the whole truth, determine culpability, and exact the appropriate consequences for impeachable acts.
By dropping these charges, the House prosecutors are, in effect, refusing to try some of the most serious allegations against Duterte. They are denying the impeachment court and the Filipino people the full opportunity to determine whether she is guilty of these alleged offenses.
The questionable use of hundreds of millions of pesos in confidential and intelligence funds is not a minor issue that can simply be set aside for expediency. It goes to the heart of public accountability and transparency in the abuse of public funds.
Likewise, Duterte’s public threats against the country’s highest officials raise serious questions about her fitness to exercise public office. These matters deserve a full and fair hearing, not a quiet withdrawal from the impeachment proceedings.
We recognize that prosecutors must make strategic decisions in presenting their case and that a prolonged trial could be exploited to frustrate accountability. But such expediency must not override the public interest in establishing the truth. Neither should impeachment be reduced to a numbers game in which charges carefully selected and built up are easily discarded merely to secure the necessary votes for conviction.
BAYAN believes that Sara Duterte must be convicted for all her impeachable acts. The Filipino people deserve that such judgment is done through due process, on the basis of evidence presented and properly examined in a fair and transparent trial.
A conviction secured by cutting corners or setting aside serious allegations may produce an immediate political victory but risks weakening the credibility of impeachment as an instrument of constitutional accountability. It could also establish a dangerous precedent in which future impeachment proceedings become exercises in political bargaining rather than genuine efforts to uncover wrongdoing and uphold the public trust.
The serious allegations involving Duterte’s confidential funds and assassination threats should not simply be swept under the rug. At the very least, prosecutors owe the public a full and convincing explanation of why these charges are being abandoned and how accountability for these acts will still be pursued.
The Filipino people deserve more than a speedy verdict. They deserve the truth, justice, and genuine accountability.