Philippine V-P Sara Duterte responds to impeachment trial summons

MANILA – Philippine Vice-President Sara Duterte responded on June 23 to her Senate impeachment trial summons hours before the deadline, demanding the case against her be dropped.

The House of Representatives

impeached Ms Duterte in early February

on charges of graft, corruption and an alleged assassination plot against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, her one-time ally and former running mate.

A guilty verdict in the Senate would result in her removal from office and permanent disqualification from politics.

A copy of Ms Duterte’s reply to the summons delivered by messenger to House prosecutors on the afternoon of June 23 called the complaint against her an abuse of the impeachment process.

“There are no statements of ultimate facts in the (impeachment complaint). Stripped of its ‘factual’ and legal conclusions, it is nothing more than a scrap of paper,” the response read.

It goes on to deny the allegations made against her as “false” and states that the Senate’s decision to remand the case to the House earlier in June removed her responsibility to answer them.

Ms Duterte is currently on a trip to Australia, where she is meeting Filipino supporters.

Her summons was issued on June 10 after an hours-long Senate session that saw lawmakers convene as an impeachment court, only to send the case back to the House, a decision one lawmaker called a “functional dismissal”.

Barely 24 hours later, the House complied with the senior body’s order to “certify” the constitutionality of the impeachment.

Her allies in the Senate had argued that earlier complaints heard in the House without a vote counted as multiple impeachment hearings within a single year, a violation of the country’s 1987 Constitution.

House prosecutors now have five days to respond to Ms Duterte’s answers.

Her trial is not expected to start until the new Senate convenes on July 28. AFP