VP Duterte Impeachment Trial Opens: Accountability and Public Trust at Stake

MANILA, Philippines — “Power belongs to the people,” Rep. Gerville Luistro, lead House prosecutor, said on Monday in her opening statement on the first day of the Senate impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte. "When the people entrust power to a public official, does the public official remain accountable to the people, or do the people become accountable to the public official?" Luistro said. According to Luistro, the impeachment trial matters because it involves public money, public trust, and the people’s right to demand accountability from officials they placed in power. "The issue now is about something that everyone owns — their money, their trust, their right to ask for accountability from leaders whom they trusted," Luistro said in Filipino. Like ordinary public servants, the highest officials are also required to explain the use of funds and the discharge of public duties, she stressed. "If a barangay treasurer must account for public funds, then so must the vice president," Luistro said. Impeachment is not a weapon for political revenge, she said, but a constitutional safeguard for the republic. "Not to punish political opponents, not to settle political scores, but to protect the republic itself," Luistro said. /atm