They wanted her impeached and for many millions reasons they did Wednesday shortly before they adjourned the House session ahead of the May midterm elections. Within minutes Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez instructed House Secretary General Reginald S. Velasco to transmit to the Senate the impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte which was signed by 215 members of the House. The Senate received the articles of impeachment at 5:50 pm but did not tackle it as it adjourned its session to make way for the campaign period or election 2025.
Ilocos Norte Representative Sandro Marcos took the lead role in the impeachment effort against the Vice President which his father earlier branded the plot as a waste of time. Surprising although not impossible given the experience and treatment that VP Sara had from cousins Marcos and Romualdez after the UniTeam won in the 2022 regular elections. Sandro of course cannot be faulted by his father for being the first to sign.
As quickly as the impeachment votes were tallied in the House of Romualdez the results spread all over the country like wildfire. By noon Thursday a number of congressmen who voted for the impeachment had been identified.
The backlash started to hound those who signed it. A congressman from Cotabato had been pilloried on air by callers who had called for the boycott of his mall. The criticisms have gone wild and unwieldy the members of his family have been dragged into the melee.
In Davao Region, the lone signatory is Rep. Tracy Cagas of Davao del Sur. His face in billboards had been smudged and there is no showing the temper of the electorates will ebb.
The anger is swirling still. The Maranaw tribe issued a strong statement against the move of the House of Representatives impeaching Sara. The MNLF is quiet which is foreboding. It is a clear message that they will not countenance the HoR action.
Amidst the din of maddening outcry over the impeachment plot are questions that begged for answers. Did President Marcos Junior gave the signal to file and act on the impeachment of Sara Duterte who installed him and his cousin Martin to cover up or divert a far more serious problem that the country and his administration are facing? Wasn’t it that his economic guru and Agriculture Secretary warned of impending food crisis?
So many imponderables had surfaced including the eloquent silence of PRRD and the Maisug tribe. One thing is however certain. The political fortune of those who signed and those who did not is surely headed to a radical shift.
