By Junex Doronio

MANILA — The attempt to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte will only succeed if it gains the approval of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., so said former president Rodrigo Duterte’s apologist.

Drawing parallels, FPRRD’s spokesperson and human rights lawyer Harry Roque revealed on Sunday that the outspoken former Chief Executive rejected the plan to impeach his arch-critic, then Vice President Leni Robredo. Duterte believed that she did not pose a threat to his administration.

“Without the approval of the sitting president, any impeachment process not involving the chief executive is bound to fail,” stressed Roque.

Earlier, ACT Teachers party-list Representative France Castro, who sued Duterte for an alleged death threat, confirmed that there were discussions among congressmen to impeach VP Sara.

To recall, the House of Representatives felt insulted when Duterte called the lower chamber ‘the most rotten institution,’ even though he was once a member representing Davao City’s 1st District from June 30, 1998, to June 30, 2001.

The elder Duterte was furious that the House of Representatives, led by Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez, stripped the P650-million confidential and Intelligence funds (CIF) for the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) that VP Sara heads as the concurrent Secretary for 2024.

Instead, the congressmen decided to realign the CIF to the agencies tasked with safeguarding the country’s security and sovereignty.

In his November 18 column for The Philippine Star, Roque reminisced that there were “several” politicians allied with the then Digong administration who wanted to impeach Robredo.

“I recall the politicians presenting the impeachment case against Robredo to then-President Rodrigo Duterte. Duterte gave the thumbs down right away. His response was: ‘What for? She does not pose a threat to the government. Most of our people would not believe her anyway,’” Roque revealed.

At that time, however, the Duterte administration was at the height of its popularity, in contrast to the present situation where VP Sara’s trust and performance ratings in recent surveys were noticeably declining, while Romualdez’s were steadily climbing.

VP Sara and Romualdez are seen as the main protagonists in the 2028 presidential race, five years from now.

(ai/mnm)