Democratic organizations once again called on Congress to initiate impeachment proceedings or indict Vice President Sara Duterte following her hysterics on November 23. During the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability hearing on November 25, various organizations protested in front of the Batasan Complex, demanding accountability from the Vice President for her embezzlement of public funds. The Vice President and her closest officials appeared at this hearing.

“Sara Duterte continues to distract us with theatrics because the real issue is her embezzlement of confidential funds and obstruction of investigations into these anomalies,” the Kilusang Mayo Uno stated.

“Sara Duterte should be held accountable for her anomalous use of confidential funds in 2022 and 2023,” the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan said. “The basis is sufficient to file an impeachment complaint against her and her accomplices in her plunder of the public treasury.”

“The Vice President cannot use politics to cover up her plunder,” the Kilusang Magbubukid sa Pilipinas stated. “No amount of theatrics or deflection can save her.” In their eyes, Duterte is “guilty of plunder and betrayal of public trust.”

Bayan also urged Congress to compel Duterte to account for her illegal spending and to reject the proposal of some senators to restore the cuts to her office’ budget request.

“In the past week, the Dutertes maliciously tried to divert attention by making sensational statements and staging dramatic public stunts.”

This refers to Sara Duterte’s hyterics after Congress attempted to transfer her chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez, from her detention room in Congress to a women’s prison in Mandaluyong City. In her dramatics, Duterte claimed that she had already contracted an assasin to kill Ferdinand Marcos Jr, his wife Liza Araneta, and his cousin Martin Romualdez in case she gets killed. These sensational statements are being investigated by the president’s team.

Along with the call to impeach Sara Duterte, the groups also demanded the filing of cases and prosecution of former President Rodrigo Duterte.

“The political bickering among the Marcos and Duterte camps should not delay the pursuit of justice,” Bayan stated. “A warrant of arrest should be immediately served against Rodrigo Duterte, while criminal charges must be filed against Tokhang generals and high-ranking officials implicated in extrajudicial killings.”

While the groups call for accountability for the Dutertes, they also condemn the Marcos regime for its own severe human rights violations and lavish lifestyle funded by stolen state assets.

The intensifying clash within the ruling elite highlights the bankrupt character of politics dominated by corrupt dynasties and oligarchs, according to the group. “The greedy maneuver for monopolizing power and accumulating wealth reflects the persistence of bureaucrat capitalism.”

Like the Dutertes, Marcos has also embezzled billions of pesos in “presidential pork” in the form of “unprogrammed funds” and confidential and intelligence funds.

Bayan is calling on the Filipino people to intensify their efforts to reject the rule of dynasties and tyrants and to struggle for true freedom and democracy in the country.