The Senate, as currently constituted, will be blind, deaf, and mute if the House of Representatives calls the dare of Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio for her to be impeached for culpable violation of the constitution, loss of trust and confidence, graft and plunder, and tried before the upper chamber.
For the mother-and-son tandem Sens. Cynthia Villar and Mark Villar, mere friendship with the Dutertes already killed any chance that they will vote to convict Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio, the way they found Pastor Apollo Quiboloy lily-white, simply because they’re “friends.” Of course, Sens. Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa and Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go will take a bullet for Duterte Sr. but they would not recuse, even if both of them were indispensable actors in the “war on drugs” that killed 30,000 Filipinos, not one of them convicted in any court of law.
Then, there is Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, who was quoted as saying that he does not want any trial for Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio for flouting the Charter, mangling due process, and speaking with forked tongues on the difference between a “witness” and a “resource person,” quoting such a legal icon as Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Yet, Estrada needs a sparring partner, a “kakosa,” so to speak, a fellow alumnus of the Camp Crame stockade, Sen. Ramon Revilla. Fortunate fellows as their underlings were convicted for graft. Of course, one mustn’t forget the sister-brother team, the Cayetanos of Taguig and USA, with Alan Peter, who fortunately didn’t win as vice president for Duterte Sr., and sister Pia, better known as one who backed legitimized POGOs, who is unfortunately still at her Senate perch.
Need we add Sen. Joel Villanueva, who should be as righteous as John the Baptist but who found it beneath his dignity to support the investigation of Sara? There may be more in the woodwork like Sen. Robinhood Padilla, who has been in a rough patch lately for failing to discern what is incontrovertible evidence and vacuous proof, like the “sentient affidavit” offered by Sara in her defense. There are other twerking, dredging senators, powerful members of the Committee on Silence, who would roar when their vested interests are touched. Never forget the ever-returning Sen. Lito Lapid, the emperor of Porac if he chooses, who has never stopped studying the art of statutory construction.
Based on their public utterances, they will torpedo, steamroll or sabotage the people’s case against Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio, believing that the unknown quantity from Davao City added millions of votes to their names. Of course, this is billingsgate since digital fraud can also produce at least 20 million votes signed, sealed, and delivered in a jiffy, at 8:12 p.m. on the night of May 9, 2022, while precincts were yet to close. Team Unity was, in fact, so united that their tentacles extended to the Commission on Elections (Comelec), with the largely Davao City commission comprised of loyal Duterte operators.
Since Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. also signaled to both the House of Representatives and the Senate that he would frown on the impeachment of Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio, which means he would oppose any trial for his now-estranged partner, he has maneuvered himself into an ugly position, coddling the uncivilized statements of Sara and dismissing her threats on his life as “unimportant.” Surely, First Lady Liza Cacho Araneta Marcos does not consider the threat of beheading her husband a joke just as throwing the remains of her father-in-law into the South China Sea (SCS) as meaningless prattle. In the floating mindset of the Dutertes, everything is a joke, a fib, a lie, and nothing is true.
Well said. So, investigating the operations of wastrels, grafters, and plunderers is now a trifle, a meaningless activity even in the face of insurmountable evidence that Sara misspent hundreds of millions of pesos in cash for her fabricated Confidential and Intelligence Fund (CIF) in 2022. A check with the General Appropriations Act of 2022 (GAA) showed that not a single red centavo in CIF was earmarked for the Office of the Vice President (OVP) for that year. In short, any expense Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio charged to CIF that year was illegal. No less than Executive Secretary Lucas P. Bersamin said the P125 million released to the OVP in the last quarter of 2022 was charged to the Contingent Fund (CF), not the CIF. At the outset, the expense was illegal, so how could Marcos Jr. conclude that the inquiry would not benefit a single Filipino?
For the benefit of the entire Filipino people, this issue about the impeachment of Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio is a case study of bringing justice to bear on an elected official who had earlier been criticized by the Commission on Audit (COA) for failing to account for the P2.37 billion in CIF for the many years she sat as mayor of Davao City. It brings to mind the rapacity of officials who do not think they are responsible for the judicious deployment of people’s resources, whether they come from direct or indirect taxes or non-tax revenues. It is equally contemptible that Sara believes uncorroborated documents and unsubstantiated claims prove the veracity of her financial declarations, whether in Davao City, the OVP or the Department of Education (DepEed.) Truly, a little learning is a dangerous thing.
