MORE than 20 trial days spent on Vice-President (VP) Sara Duterte-Carpio’s alleged misuse of confidential funds and grave threats against President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. taught Filipinos in holding public officials accountable, analysts said amid claims that the withdrawal of charges wasted P500 million in public funds.
Salvador Paolo A. Panelo, Jr., the Vice-President’s spokesman, estimated the impeachment trial cost P25 million per day, excluding lawmakers’ salaries, legal fees, consultants and other expenses.
Senator President Sherwin T. Gatchalian disputed this figure, saying it represented the Senate’s regular operating costs. He said the trial’s direct expenses were more than P14.55 million over 44 trial days, or an average of about P330,763 per day.
Jean S. Encinas-Franco, a political science professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD), said in a telephone call assessing the budget spent on the trial as a significant loss can be valid.
However, Ms. Encinas-Franco said the time spent on the withdrawn articles was ultimately valuable for the public.
“In the longer term, the weeks that were spent on the three articles can also be good in terms of… telling the public that our democracy is working and that these complaints pertaining to the three articles are… our examples of what not to do as an elected public official and also our examples of how people can actually seek accountability from the second-highest official of the land,” she said.
Ma. Ela L. Atienza, another political science professor at UPD, said the trial also forced people to talk about the allegations and evidence against Ms. Duterte openly.
Ms. Atienza highlighted the outcry of fisherfolk in Zambales and Bataan when allegations of the Vice-President accepting funds from the Chinese state came out during the trial. “That’s a very honest reaction… [showing] that Filipinos are thinking, they see the impact these transactions have on them,” she said.
The trial’s withdrawn articles were still an exercise in democracy, which has no cost, Ms. Encinas-Franco added, but acknowledged that Filipinos struggling amid high inflation rates may react negatively to this framing. — Francessca S. Abalos