The lodging of impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte for her betrayal of public trust is not just a teaching moment, but also underscores the urgent need for public pressure to hold culpable government officials accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was the resounding message of \u201cWhy Impeach: A Forum on Public Accountability\u201d held on Saturday by IBON and the IBON Partnership in Education for Development (IPED) Educators\u2019 Forum for Development (EFD). The online forum was attended by over 80 individuals from some 40 schools and organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
IBON Research Head Rosario Guzman gave the rationale, saying that the discussion on the impeachment cases filed against Sara Duterte was a teaching moment on social studies as it tackles social realities; on public accountability as the highest officials of the land display abuse of the power vested on them by the people; and on democracy at a time that it is not fully realized. Guzman also said \u201cWhy Impeach\u201d teaches about the nation\u2019s aspiration for a just economy and budgeting amid the government\u2019s perpetration of neoliberal policies that worsen poverty and inequality. Marcos has downplayed the issue, dodging criticism that his administration\u2019s anomalous 2025 budget is riddled with pork barrel spending, electioneering, debt-servicing and preservation of an elitist economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Atty. Carlos Zarate, former Congressman and current Bayan Muna Executive Vice President, discussed the \u201cPeople\u2019s Complaint\u201d filed against Duterte on December 4 by 75 individuals from various sectors and endorsed by Makabayan lawmakers. The complaint cites three acts of the betrayal of public trust, which prove that the Vice President has violated her oath to office and should be held accountable and impeached. These are based on the 1987 Philippine Constitution\u2019s Article XI Sections 1 and 2 on public office being a public trust. These acts include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The former congressman also explained the impeachment process and underscored the importance of more public discussions to build awareness and support as well as ensure the complaint\u2019s advance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In reaction, Prof. David San Juan, convenor of the Taumbayan Ayaw sa Magnanakaw At Abusado<\/em> Network Alliance or TAMA NA, affirmed that the impeachment cases have sufficient grounds. He stressed that the people\u2019s collective actions need to be sustained beyond the Christmas season to push solons to attend to the complaints, saying that such public pressure has historically been effective. San Juan also reminded the audience to remain vigilant over the budget, scrutinize the Office of the President\u2019s similarly huge confidential and intelligence funds, and probe where each centavo of the people\u2019s money goes, especially in terms of social services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Donna Miranda, a parent at the Children\u2019s Rehabilitation Center (CRC) and volunteer for the Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA), said that the home is the first school of Filipino children, who will be the country\u2019s future nation builders. She said that the impeachment process is a parenting moment as well where families can discuss the value of democracy, accountability, public trust, and civic participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All four speakers emphasized that the move to impeach Sara Duterte should not be trivialized as just the falling-out of the Marcos and Duterte camps, but as a serious effort by Filipinos to collectively hold corrupt bureaucrats answerable. They agreed on the need for more forums and mobilizations to strengthen people\u2019s solidarity on the impeachment move. These can serve as a warning and hold officials like Duterte accountable for breaking their sworn oath of service. ###<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The move to impeach Sara Duterte should not be trivialized as just the falling-out of the Marcos and Duterte camps, but as a serious effort by Filipinos to collectively hold corrupt bureaucrats answerable. They agreed on the need for more forums and mobilizations to strengthen people\u2019s solidarity on the impeachment move. <\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-withbanner.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[2048,40,4,14],"tags":[3711,3710,3709,3700,3702,3708,3707,3703,3704,3699,2973,2971,3706,3705,2710,116,3701,3598],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15761"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15761"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15767,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15761\/revisions\/15767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}