Gatchalian Says Senate Spends P25 Million Daily ‘With or Without Impeachment Trial’

Senate Pres. Sherwin Gatchalian Speaks on Senate Expenses

GATCHALIAN – The Senate President said the chamber spends P25 million daily ‘with or without impeachment trial’.

The prosecution team in the impeachment trial of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte recently dropped the three (3) remaining impeachment articles. They’re about the alleged grave threats, bribery, and misused confidential funds.

It was in June when the impeachment trial of the Vice President started. The trial came after two (2) impeachment raps filed against Duterte were found sufficient in form, substance, and grounds by the House of Representatives’ Justice Committee. 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 Senate impeachment court is led by Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero. However, his election was not supported by the minority group who believes that Senate Pres. Sherwin Gatchalian should be the presiding officer of the impeachment court.

Here are the senators who voted in favor and against Escudero being the presiding officer of the impeachment court:

Sen. Imee Marcos even previously slammed Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian and called him the “besiding officer” for seating beside Sen. Chiz Escudero. Marcos also previously stressed the alleged huge spending of the Senate.

Davao Cong. Paolo Duterte also recently claimed that a huge amount of public funds were allegedly spent by the Senate for the impeachment trial of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte. Recently, Senate Pres. Sherwin Gatchalian denied it.

Based on News5, Senate Pres. Sherwin Gatchalian denied that the Senate spends P25 million daily for the impeachment trial of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte. According to the Senate Chief, the said amount is already inclusive of the overall operating expenses of the chamber.

Gatchalian stressed that the Senate spends the said amount daily with or without an impeachment trial. Based on the post, he revealed that the chamber spends around P330,763 for each day of the impeachment proceedings.

“That figure [P25 million] represents the cost of operating the entire Senate, including personnel and senators’ salaries, maintenance, rentals, and utilities. The Senate spends it with or without an impeachment trial,” the Senate President said.

SP Sherwin Gatchalian stressed that the “Constitution gives the Senate the sole power to try and decide all cases of impeachment”. According to him, “the Senate is fulfilling this duty as required by law”.

Previously, Vice Pres. Sara Duterte wanted the Senate to cover for the food of the defense team.