Vice President Sara Duterte said her legal team is already preparing a response to the Office of the Ombudsman’s order directing her to submit a counter-affidavit in connection with allegations of misuse of confidential funds.
She assured that the answer will be filed “within the required period of 10 days.”
In an interview in Melbourne, Australia on Sunday, June 22, Duterte disclosed that her lawyers had been preparing for this since November 2023.
“We received the order to comment of the Ombudsman for 10 days and we intend to file within 10 days. We’ve been preparing for this since November 2023, the moment that we heard Rep. (France) Castro from the House of Representatives mentioned the word ‘impeachment’,” she said.
She also recognized that failure to file a counter-affidavit within the period provided for by the Ombudsman will “be deemed as waiver of respondents’ right to submit controverting evidence and the preliminary investigation shall proceed accordingly.”
The allegations stemmed from a June 10 report by the House committee on good governance, which was passed to the country’s chief prosecutor on June 16.
An order dated June 19 from the Ombudsman gave Duterte and her former subordinates in the OVP and DepEd 10 days to respond.
The committee report recommended that the Vice President and several others be charged with technical malversation, falsification and use of falsified documents, perjury, bribery and corruption, plunder, betrayal of public trust, and culpable violation of the Constitution.
It said that Duterte and her personnel misused P625 million—P500 million from the OVP and P125 million from DepEd—in confidential funds. (Martin Sadongdong)
