by Diego Morra
In the past two weeks, Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio has unleashed tons of press releases, photos and social media posts to show that she is working, touching base with people, planting tree seedlings, remembering the victims of Typhoon Yolanda, visiting the memorial to the victims of the Davao City bombing and trying vainly to disprove that she isn’t affected by the annoyance called the impeachment trial.
Yet, her grandstanding has amounted to nothing since she is running it against the continuing trial, which has drawn the interest of millions of Filipinos who have a stake in the final verdict to be rendered by the Senate as an impeachment court. Sara has been assailing the Senate itself for being a kangaroo court, a tribunal that is fed manufactured evidence and fabricated proof so buttress the bad law enacted purposely to ruin her campaign for the presidency. Since 2024, Sara had tried, but failed, to show that a conspiracy has been hatched malign her reputation, sully her popularity and subvert the decision of the 32-million Filipinos who voted for her as vice president in May 2022.
This is bad cover for the Latin maxim “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” which is not remotely related to Sara’s woes. The impeachment trial is being conducted by the Senate under the command of the 1987 Constitution and it doesn’t matter if 200 million Filipino voters opted for her because Sara was an unknown quantity nationwide in 2022. Moreover, what is at issue is not the digitized electoral result but the veracity of the Articles of Impeachment. Yet, it was Sara’s legal theory that the choice of 32-million voters in 2022 gives her immunity. Give me some slack because voters gave me a resounding victory. It bombed right at the start of the trial since it amounted to a prayer for the dismissal of the case. Poor Sara, she didn’t know that it is a prohibited pleading.
Talking without thinking is bad behavior, especially for a politician aspiring to lead the nation. In her public statements, Sara said honesty and sincerity are not needed in politics and even declared that she hates crowds, and this agoraphobia explains why she needs 433 bodyguards as her “hawi” boys to keep the “adoring masses” out of her sight. It is not hoity-toity talk of the rubbing alcohol elite; it is an admission that she can’t stand the very people who voted her in, largely through the operations of the national Marcos-Romualdez machinery and the Duterte and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo cliques that banded together only to be cast asunder due to Sara’s tantrums and plot to kick Ferdinand Marcos Jr. midstream.
Hers is a case of not reading Machiavelli and understanding that character, not police character, is required of anyone aspiring to become president. There is no predestination or franchise to the top, even if political dynasties believe they are entitled to become overlords in their bailiwicks. Sara, in case she reads people other than William Henley, should really ponder on what Martin Luther King Jr. said: “Nothing in the world is more dangerous that sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” Like saying All Souls Day is “Semana Santa” or Holy Week and not knowing anything about Pax Silica, or F*ck Silica to her, which she doesn’t know and won’t understand.
Since July 2026, Sara and her minions have tried vainly to control the narrative of the impeachment trial, only to be throttled by their strange legal theory and their ill-prepared handling of the mass of evidence from the Sara bank accounts or the joint bank accounts with her husband, Atty. Mans Carpio, her Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALNs), her tax documents, filings at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), her corporate records, the annual General Information Sheets (GIS), and the figures collected by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), including remittances from countries addicted to the banana chips of Cale88 Foods that Mans controlled even as his equity suddenly got deleted from some papers.
At this stage, when the defense failed to object immediately when the prosecution withdrew three articles of impeachment to concentrate on the ill-gotten wealth allegations, Sara and her legal tacticians have the burden of presenting their own set of evidence, with the added trauma of demolishing the findings of forensic analyst Atty. Alexander Cabrera, who declared that based on his analysis of the documents submitted by the defense and the records submitted in evidence, Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio must account for at least P817.71-million in unexplained wealth based on a conservative framework. If other accounts are taken into consideration, the unexplained wealth balloons to P1.5-billion.
On Nov. 9, 2026, Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio should declare before the impeachment court “Volo, et possum” or “I want to, and I can” to end all the argle-bargle of the defense. The only competent witness of Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio is Sara Duterte Zimmerman Carpio, not Atty. Sheila Sison, not Atty. Michael Poa and certainly not Atty. Kristine Ferrer. And her defense panel claimed that their star witness with belie all the allegations, explain by mansions were included in her SALNs and how she and her industrious hubby gained control of at least 18 corporations and five Jollibee franchises even as one lawyer claims the total is 55. The theory of the “other” category as the parking lot for millions of pesos and the use of the “tinikling” scheme of manager’s checks to hide money will thus be explained, not by Sheila, Michael or Kristine but by Sara herself, if she doesn’t Jollibees (chickens out) her way out again. That will be the day.#
