Vice President Sara Duterte speaks to the media, December 11, 2024. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News/File 

MANILA (UPDATED) — Vice President Sara Duterte on Friday said she was “okay” after her impeachment and that she was consulting her lawyers.

In her first comments since her impeachment, Duterte said, “Ang tanging masasabi ko na lamang sa puntong ito ay God save the Philippines.”

“Bukod dito, nais ko na lang ipaabot ang aking taos pusong pasasalamat sa mga kababayan na patuloy nagdarasal, sumusuporta, nagtitiwala at patuloy na nagmamahal sa akin. Manalig kayo dahil sa taong bayan ang tagumpay,” the Vice President said.

Duterte said she started preparing for the impeachment proceedings as early as November 2023, when House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro of ACT Teachers party-list bared plans to file a complaint. 

“So November of 2023, there were already lawyers doing their work for the impeachment. We leave it to the lawyers,” Duterte said. 

“I’m okay,” she added.

In a statement after Duterte's press conference, Akbayan Party-List Rep. Perci Cendaña called her invocation of God "deeply ironic" for what he said was her failure to save public funds from misuse and to "defend our fisherfolk and frontliners from China’s harassment in the West Philippine Sea."

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"If anyone should be saying 'God save the Philippines,' it’s the people suffering from her and her family’s corruption, incompetence, and impunity," Cendaña, one of more than 200 members of the House who signed the impeachment complaint against Duterte on Wednesday, said.

'I HAVE NOT TALKED TO FRIENDS AT SENATE'

Duterte was impeached by the House of Representatives on Wednesday for "violation of the constitution, betrayal of public trust, graft and corruption, and other high crimes".

The Senate must convene a tribunal to try the vice president. If convicted, she will be removed from her post and barred from public office.

“I have not talked to my friends in the Senate,” Duterte said.

“I’ve not counted numbers of votes in the Senate… The legal team is still in the preparation of the defense and what we will do moving forward,” she said. 

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When asked if she felt betrayed after some lawmakers from Mindanao voted in favor of her impeachment, Duterte answered she had "no feelings" over the matter since she lacked personal ties with most politicians. 

“Mas masakit pa ang maiwanan ng boyfriend o girlfriend kaysa ma-impeach ka ng House of Representatives,” she said at the end of her press statement.

(A breakup would hurt worse than being impeached)

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has swatted down any suggestion he played a role in her impeachment process.

“The executive cannot have a hand in the impeachment. Walang role ang executive sa impeachment,” Marcos said on Thursday.  

“Did we discuss it with the Speaker, did we discuss it with the other congressmen? Of course. Tinatanong (ko), ‘Ano ba talaga ang plano ninyo, ano ang gusto nyong gawin?’ ‘Nandito na ito eh, hindi na namin maiwasan.’”

Senate President Francis Escudero told reporters that Duterte's trial would probably not finish before the next congress takes over in July.

This could effectively mean Duterte's tribunal will be composed of entirely different members at the start and close of the trial.

It will likely "extend into the 20th Congress. That's almost a sure thing now," he said.

Speaking at a separate press conference, House Deputy Majority Leader Lorenz Defensor agreed the trial "may cross over to the next Congress", whose members will be determined by countrywide elections on May 12. 

LEGAL CHALLENGE? 

The setup of this tribunal could give Duterte ammunition to challenge her impeachment's legality, said Dennis Coronacion, head of the political science department at Manila's University of Santo Tomas.

Because an impeachment voted on by sitting lawmakers could be tried by an incoming class, there was "speculation this will give the vice president a legal remedy and allow her to challenge that in the Supreme Court."

The potential election of pro-Duterte senators to the body could also eliminate the two-thirds majority needed to secure a conviction, he added.

Veteran lawyer Romulo Macalintal said if the impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte would not be concluded by the current Senate, the newly installed senators after the 2025 midterm elections cannot tackle the impeachment complaint as it would be unconstitutional.

Macalintal noted that under the Constitution, no impeachment proceedings shall be initiated against the same official more than once within a period of one year.

“Mangyayari iyan na parang bagong impeachment case ito na ifina-file sa bagong Senado na siyempre sasabihin ni Ms Sara aba ay hindi na pupwede iyan sapagkat kapag may bagong impeachment case. Sakop ito ng tinatawag na pagbabawal sa ating Saligang Batas na hindi pwedeng magkaroon ng dalawang impeachment case sa loob ng isang taon,” Macalintal said.

Macalintal also thumbed down the idea that the old Senate could simply transfer the impeachment complaint to the new Senate.

He said the Senate has its own rules and is not bound by the Rules of Court which provide that judges can turn over cases among themselves.  

“Kung walang sariling rules ang Senado pwede na gamitin ang Rules of Court in supplicatory character. Pero dito may sariling rules ang Senado na sinasabing pag natapos mo ang Congress mo sa panahong ito tapos na iyon, tapos na rin ang lahat ng mga nakabinbin mong kaso mga proceedings na tinatawag,” Macalintal said.

Macalintal also pointed out that the best option for the House of Representatives after impeaching the Vice President is to ask Marcos to request for a special session of Congress so that the Senate can form an impeachment court.

“At least meron pa silang February, March, April, mga four months pa at palagay ko naman sa loob ng apat na buwan ay baka matapos nila iyan,” Macalintal said.

Duterte was widely tipped to succeed her father Rodrigo as president in 2022 elections but stepped aside to back Marcos and later ran for vice president on his ticket.

But the alliance has since imploded. In November, she delivered an expletive-laden speech saying she had ordered someone to kill Marcos if she herself was assassinated.

She later denied that her comments constituted a death threat, saying she had only been expressing "consternation" with the administration's failures.

— With reports from Agence France Presse; Adrian Ayalin, ABS-CBN News