Sara Duterte Claims Impeachment Plot Was Hatched Way Back in 2023
Vice President Sara Duterte is firing back at her critics, claiming that the impeachment cases filed against her were not a spontaneous move — but a calculated plan that dates all the way back to May 2023.
Speaking on the pilot episode of her SMNI TV show "Ibalik ang Tapang at Malasakit" on Friday, Duterte pointed fingers at the Makabayan bloc and allies of former Speaker Martin Romualdez in the House of Representatives. According to her, these groups had already been laying the groundwork for her ouster using the confidential funds issue as their weapon of choice.
"They said that if I became NTF-ELCAC vice chair, I would control more confidential funds. So as early as May 11, 2023, may script na sila," Duterte said. She also accused former House Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Stella Luz Quimbo of pushing the narrative that the P125 million confidential fund of the Office of the Vice President was spent in just 11 days.
In her defense, Duterte cited the Commission on Audit, which she says gave her office two Audit Observation Memoranda with an "unmodified opinion" — essentially a clean bill of financial health. She added that the confidential funds were used in areas facing real threats to education and children, including criminality, insurgency, and violent extremism.
The Vice President's new show appears to be her platform for fighting back against what she sees as a political conspiracy, and she's clearly not pulling any punches. Whether this changes public opinion or just deepens the political divide remains to be seen.
Source: The Manila Times
