A statement circulating online attributes to Senator-judge Vicente “Tito” Sotto III a call to bypass the rules and promptly convict Vice President Sara Duterte in her impeachment trial. This is fake.
From July 8 to 14, multiple Facebook users and pages posted several graphics in numerous groups dedicated to various interests—most of them are pro-Dutertes—featuring Sotto’s supposed remark:
“Gusto ni Sotto E Convict agad si Sara kahit walang Valid na Ebidensya! Wag na daw sumunod sa Rules dahil ito daw ang Nais ng Taumbayan
(Sotto wants Sara convicted immediately even without valid evidence! He says there’s no need to follow the rules because this is supposedly what the people want).”
No credible media organization has reported on such a claim, which the bogus graphics presented as “breaking news.”
As of press time, there is also no record of Sotto making the remark in any public interview, official social media posts or during the Senate impeachment trial.
While Sotto commented on the rules during the first day of the impeachment trial on July 6, he only said they are “sometimes not sacrosanct.” It was in response to the clashing position of senator-judges over who will preside over Duterte’s trial. In the end, the court voted to elect Senator-judge Francis Escudero as presiding officer.
“Ang sinasabi ng publikong ngayon nanonood sa atin, dapat you should not resort [to] too much technicalities dahil ang public interest ang iniisip nila rito. They’re interested in the trial, not rules,” he said.
Sotto earlier argued that the Constitution is silent regarding the presiding officer of the impeachment court when the official on trial is other than the president. He noted, however, that the Charter expressly provides that the Chief Justice shall preside when the President of the Philippines is on trial.
Contrary to the “lack of valid evidence” narrative, the marking of voluminous documentary evidence in Duterte’s impeachment was already completed when the pre-trial conference concluded on June 25.
Since July 6, some of the documentary exhibits have been offered as evidence during the trial, which centered on Article IV relating to Duterte’s alleged threats on the life of President Ferdinand Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and former House speaker Martin Romualdez.
VERA Files previously fact-checked another fake utterance ascribed to Sotto, claiming only 14 votes are needed to impeach Duterte. [READ: FACT CHECK: Sotto saying 14 votes enough to convict VP Sara in impeachment trial FAKE]
At least 28 posts on FB spread the manufactured statement, including one reaction video to the spurious graphic. As of writing, they have so far collectively garnered 14,945 reactions; 7,973 comments and 697 shares. Two copies have been cross-posted on Threads.
