The popular Sara Duterte on trial

A divisive, do-nothing vice president. She must account for her recent actions, especially on issues concerning bribery, plunder, corruption and predisposition to violence.

That is how the public perceives Sara Z. Duterte today. If you believe surveys.

A large majority of Filipinos, 78 percent or nearly eight of very 10 people, want Sara to face impeachment trial to answer the charges against her and clear her name. Only 13 percent disagreed with this demand for a trial. This is OCTA Research survey of April 20-24, 2025.

Wanting a trial does not mean people believe Sara is guilty. They want to give her the benefit of doubt. Doubts can only be erased by a trial. It doesn’t matter that majority of the senator-judges (18 vs. 5) are biased in her favor.

For all we know, the people are biased in Sara’s favor. Which explains why in the March 23-29, 2025 survey by respected pollster Pulse Asia, Sara enjoyed a 59 percent approval rating.

Let me stress though that job approval ratings are a perception game. They do not reflect on the ground reality. More realistically, they reflect regional bias, heavy regional bias, pure tribalism.

In Rodrigo Duterte, in 2016, Mindanao had for the first time their own president, a native from Mindanao. Mindanao, of course, wouldn’t want to lose their hold on the presidency. This is why in Mindanao, President Marcos Jr. manages a disappointing five percent job approval rating (people there don’t like a northerner) and Sara (the Duterte heir to the presidency) enjoys 96 percent approval.

In Mindanao, per Pulse Asia, Sara enjoyed in late March 2025 a 96 percent job approval rating; in the Visayas, 68 percent; balance of Luzon, 39 percent and NCR, 55 percent. Strangely, balance of Luzon gave Sara the lowest job approval rating, 39 percent, per Pulse Asia. But per OCTA, Sara enjoyed the lowest support or call for an impeachment trial, 73 percent – vs. 83 NCR, 87 Visayas and 77 percent in Mindanao.

In share of population, NCR has 12 percent; balance of Luzon, 45 percent; Visayas, 19 percent and Mindanao, 24 percent.

Multiply Mindanao’s share of population, 24 percent, by Sara’s Mindanao job approval of 96 percent and you get 23 points. So 23 points of Sara’s overall 59 percent job approval come from Mindanao; that’s 39 percent.  Deduct 39 from 59 percent (59 minus 39) and Sara’s effective job approval is actually 20 percent in the rest of the country. With 20 percent job approval in the rest of the country – NCR, Balance of Luzon and the Visayas – can you get yourself elected president in 2028? I doubt it. Sara will be trounced in the fabled Lingayen-Lucena vote corridor, where 40 percent of Filipino voters are.

This makes Sara’s impeachment trial so crucial in the nation’s search for the next president. People want to know who Sara actually is. Is she honest? Is she competent? Is she hard working? Does she have integrity?

The Articles of Impeachment (AOI) against Sara hint some answers to these questions. The charges for which Sara has been ordered by the Senate Impeachment Court to reply within 10 days from June 11, 2025:

• Respondent Betrayed The Public Trust, Committed Culpable Violations of The Constitution And/Or Committed High Crimes In Contracting An Assassin And Plotting To Murder Or Assassinate The Incumbent President, The First Lady And Speaker Of The House Of Representatives, As Publicly Admitted By Her In A Live Broadcast.

• Betrayed The Public Trust And/Or Committed Graft And Corruption In Her Misuse and Malversation Of Confidential Funds Appropriated To The Office Of The Vice President (“OVP”) And The Department Of Education (“DepEd”).

• Betrayed The Public Trust And/Or Committed Bribery And/Or Other Acts Of Graft And Corruption In Violation of Republic Act No. 3019.

• Committed Culpable Violations Of The Constitution And/Or Betrayal Of Public Trust In Amassing Unexplained Wealth And Failing To Disclose All Her Properties And Interests In Properties In Her Statement Of Assets And Net Worth (SALN), In Violation Of Section 17, Article XI Of The 1987 Philippine Constitution.

• Committed Other High Crimes, Including The High Crime of Murder And Conspiracy To Commit Murder.

• By Herself And/Or In Concert With Others, Committed Acts Of Destabilization Constituting, At Least, A Betrayal Of Public Trust And/Or Culpable Violations Of The Constitution.

• The Totality Of Respondent’s Conduct As Vice President, Including Her Commission Of The Foregoing Acts, Clearly Display Conduct Constituting A Betrayal Of Public Trust, Culpable Violations of the 1987 Constitution, and Graft and Corruption.

The basic charge is plunder – stealing people’s money of at least P50 million. A total of P254.89 million went to 1,322 people who did not exist. Another P36 million was spent for rent of non-existent safehouses in the first two quarters of 2023, on top of P16 million spent for the same item in Q4 of 2022; P15.54 million in reward money given by DepEd for counter-insurgency (can you believe DepEd involved in counter-insurgency?). In two years, as VP, Sara spent P615 million in confidential funds, fictitious expenses. In 2022 alone, in just 11 days, including four holidays, she spent P125 million of confidential funds, fictitious expenses.

She gave monthly monetary gifts to DepEd officials in charge of procurement. Bribery.

Sara is a multibillionaire, piling up P2 billion in her personal bank accounts  from 2006 to 2015, as Davao mayor, a job that makes only P2.64 million a year.

In law, money that exceeds your legitimate income is considered graft money. It is unexplained wealth. You get fired right away.

And of course, Sara threatened to kill the President, the First Lady and the House Speaker. She hired assassins for the job. She said so herself. On national TV.

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