Statement of Malacañang on Vice Pres. Sara Duterte’s Arrest Warrant
Malacañang spoke on the arrest warrant issued by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 98 against Vice President Sara Duterte.
Amid the ongoing impeachment trial of the Vice President, the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 98 recently issued an arrest warrant against Vice Pres. Sara Duterte. It is over the three counts of grave threats that the Vice President is facing.
Duterte is accused of alleged violation of the Cybercrime Prevention Act for allegedly issuing grave threats against Pres. Bongbong Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez. The remarks reportedly circulated and gathered different opinions amid the investigations on the alleged misuse of the confidential funds by the Vice President.
Vice Pres. Sara Duterte, a former secretary of the Department of Education, allegedly misuse P125 million in confidential funds. The funds that are in question are confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd). Recently, Malacañang reacted to the issuance of an arrest warrant against the Vice President.
Based on News5, Malacañang press officer undersecretary Claire Castro said the Palace respects any decision or order of the court. Based on the post, the bail is set at P120,000.00.
Vice Pres. Sara Duterte previously defended that there’s allegedly no active threat in her statement. The Vice President has also repeatedly claimed that those who are in power allegedly wants her out so they could remain in power.
This year, four impeachment raps were filed against the Vice President before the House of Representatives’ Office of the Secretary General. Two (2) out of four (4) impeachment complaints were declared as substantial in form, substance, and grounds.
Here are some of the grounds raised against Duterte:
- Alleged culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes in amassing and converting the amount over PHP 500 million confidential funds (CF) allocated to the Office of the Vice President from 2022 to 2023
- Alleged culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes in amassing and converting the amount of not less than PHP 112.5 million of confidential funds allocated to the Department of Education (DepEd) for the year 2023
- Alleged culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust by corrupting and bribing officials of the DepEd
- Alleged culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes in contracting to murder or assassinate the president, the first lady, and the former speaker of the House
- Alleged culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust in amassing unexplained wealth and failing to disclose all her properties and interests in properties in her SALN
- Alleged culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust in committing acts of political destabilization and the high crimes of sedition and insurrection
The different offices of the government have already prepared their budget requests for next year. The proposed budget of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte’s office for 2027 has also been reported already and it gained different reactions.
