With the May 12 midterm elections approaching, impeached Vice President Sara Duterte has turned to ridiculing the lawmakers behind the congressional probe where questionable spending of her confidential funds was revealed.
After endorsing the candidacies of reelectionist Sen. Imee Marcos and outgoing Las Piñas Rep. Camille Villar for the Senate, Duterte joined the campaign rallies of the opponents of reelectionist Manila Reps. Joel Chua and Rolando Valeriano, cursing and vilifying them. She even made fun of Valeriano’s voice.
“Yung congressman ninyo, ‘yan ‘yung mukha ng distrito ninyo. ‘Yan ‘yung pambato ninyo doon sa House of Representatives. Unang-una, sa sobrang laki ng leeg niya, naiipit na ‘yung boses niya,” the country’s No. 2 official said, mimicking how the lawmaker spoke during a campaign sortie in Tondo last Thursday.
It was Valeriano who delivered a privilege speech last September against Duterte, questioning her refusal to explain how she spent hundreds of millions of pesos lodged in her office from 2022 to 2025. The speech triggered the investigation into the alleged misuse of public funds by the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, which is led by Chua, who is also among the 11 House prosecutors who will be presenting pieces of evidence against the vice president when the impeachment court is convened.
The next day, Duterte was in Chua’s district of Quiapo. She said: “Put*ng ina niya rin. Nandito ako ngayon sa distrito niya. Nagpapakilala ako sa inyong lahat, ako si Sara Duterte, kaya kong makipag-away sa kanal.”
Amid cheers of supporters of Chua’s opponent, the vice president went on to say: “Kami, kung saan kami galing doon sa Mindanao, sanay kami sa wala, kaya walang mawawala sa akin kung dalhin ko ang away na ito dito sa kanal ng distrito ninyo.”
At one point of her speech, Duterte gave Chua’s opponent, Apple Nieto, an apple and told her, “Ma’am, isaksak mo ito sa bibig ni Apple Chua hanggang sa kanyang lalamunan hanggang siya ay mamatay.” And then she continued: “Ibigay mo kay Snow White Joel Chua. Hindi ba si Snow White kumain ng apple, tapos nabilaukan? Apple ‘yan, ibigay mo ‘yan at isaksak mo doon sa bibig niya.”
She was referring to the fictional character Snow White, who died after eating the poisoned apple from her stepmother, the Evil Queen.
In August last year, one week before Valeriano delivered his speech on the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) questionable spending, Duterte refused to answer several questions, particularly regarding the P125 million in confidential funds disbursed during the last 11 days of 2022.
In separate hearings by the Good Government panel, Duterte also refused to explain detailed items in the Commission on Audit report, as well as about dubious documents submitted by the OVP and the Department of Education pertaining to a total of P612.5 million in confidential funds. Some of the documents showed releases of public funds to awkward names such as Mary Grace Piattos and Xiaome Ocho.
The Philippine Statistics Authority said that out of 1,992 names linked to the confidential funds, only 670 had a “most likely match” in its records, while 1,322 had no birth records, 1,456 had no marriage records (with only 536 possible matches) and 1,593 had no death records (with just 399 possible matches).
These were among the subjects in the articles of impeachment that the House had submitted to the Senate, which will take it up during the trial that is set to start in late July.
The vice president has apparently secured at least eight votes to acquit her in the impeachment court. That’s why she has now started campaigning against the legislators who were responsible for the House investigations and her eventual impeachment on Feb. 5.
Duterte is obviously avoiding the issues of misspending public funds and incompetence hurled against her by simply securing the votes and discrediting those holding her accountable for her mistakes and failures.
If she is acquitted in the impeachment court, it is not farfetched that she would win the presidency in 2028, enabled by those who laugh at her gutter talk and don’t care how she recklessly spends public money.
Holding the vice president accountable and demanding transparency in her spending does not necessarily mean taking the side of those who pushed for her impeachment. It is about taking a stand against corruption and incompetence and raising the level of political discourse to promote good governance in public office.
Gutter or trash talk should never be used as a tool to eliminate political opponents. Trash-talking is disrespectful and arrogant. Gutter talk, name-calling and other forms of abusive behavior are resorted to only when one runs out of substantive arguments to shift focus from the issues.
Hearing the country’s No. 2 official resorting to gutter talk would make you kneel in prayer and say: God save the Philippines.
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.
This column also appeared in The Manila Times.
