The May 11 drama in the Senate was surprising only for its theatrics—a leadership coup in the afternoon, a fugitive senator hiding in the chamber’s inner recesses by early evening, and law enforcers kept at bay by closed doors and barbed wire. The Senate has long been the place where senators charged with serious crimes...
Tag: confidential funds
Post
House impeaches VP Duterte again, votes to send her case to the Senate for trial
For the second time, and now with an overwhelming majority, the House of Representatives voted on Monday to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte on accusations of misuse of confidential funds, unexplained wealth, and threats to have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. killed. Duterte is the first Filipino official to be impeached twice. The first time was in 2025, with...
Post
Unanimous vote for articles of impeachment vs VP Duterte
The impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte is one step away from being tried in the Senate, with the House justice committee unanimously approving on Monday the committee report finding probable cause to impeach her. It took almost two hours before 55 members of the committee voted unanimously for the amended committee report and...
Post
House justice committee finds probable cause to impeach VP Sara Duterte
After a total of six hearings that looked into Vice President Sara Duterte’s alleged unexplained wealth, misuse and abuse of confidential funds, and grave threats against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., his wife, and then Speaker Martin Romualdez, the House of Representatives’ justice committee has found probable cause to impeach her. The vote was unanimous in the committee’s...
Post
The House justice committee enters ‘a territory of forensic truth’
Vice President Sara Duterte had billion of pesos in transactions that were flagged by banks to the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), despite declaring official income and net worth way below her bank records. For certain years, she failed to declare her cash on hand and cash deposits in her statements of assets, liabilities and net...
Post
Ramil Madriaga’s story of service and betrayal
Explosive allegations were made against Vice President Sara Duterte and her father by a man claiming to be her former aide and bagman at the resumption of the impeachment proceedings conducted by the House justice committee on Tuesday. Ramil Madriaga was occasionally overcome by emotion as he read aloud a supplemental affidavit that he swore...
Post
House justice committee votes to summon Vice President’s documents
The House of Representatives’ committee on justice voted on Wednesday to summon witnesses and documents it deemed necessary to determine “probable cause” to bring Vice President Sara Duterte to trial at the Senate impeachment court. Among the documents are the findings of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in its probe into Duterte’s threat in...
Post
2nd plunder complaint filed against VP Duterte, this time by Trillanes and civil society group
Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV and the civil society group The Silent Majority (TSM) have filed a plunder and malversation complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte that could feed a fresh impeachment case against her, alleging that she misused ₱650 million in confidential funds and received bribes from a suspected drug lord when she was...
Post
Once more unto the breach with the scandal du jour, even with thinning reserves of hope
What does the current spasm in the body politic over the latest manifestations of corruption indicate but that the more things change, the more they remain the same? It wasn’t too long ago when such types as “Pogi,” “Sexy” and “Tanda” were hogging the news, having been accused of receiving ₱224.5 million, ₱183.8 million, and...
Post
Five things to watch out for in the 20th Congress
1. Vice President Sara Duterte’s trial: Will it finally happen? The next round of the Marcos-Duterte family feud was expected to play out in Congress. But the Dutertes scored a win—and the possibility of a reprieve until February 2026, or even longer—in Friday’s Supreme Court ruling that temporarily banned an impeachment trial. The Marcos-controlled House...