Vice President Sara Duterte (PPAB)

A scrumptious dinner, a manifesto of support for President Marcos, and a "story session" among the solons. 

These were the things that kept the congressmen busy during the Christmas fellowship in Malacañang Wednesday night, Dec. 4, and not the rumored discussions on Vice President Sara Duterte's impeachment complaints, said D.eputy Majority Leader La Union 1st district Rep. Paolo Ortega. 

Responding to such rumors, Ortega said in a press conference Thursday, Dec.5: “Karamihan nga po ng nabasa ko sa Twitter, kabaliktaran po ng totoong nangyari (Most of what I read on Twitter [now X] were opposite of what actually happened)." 

“Wala pong kahit anumang katotohanan ang mga lumabas o na-speculate o iniisip ng ibang tao. [‘Yun po ay] sobrang simple na salo-salo lang at ang highlight ay nung prinesinta ang resolution of support ng House,” Ortega said. 

(There is no truth to the speculations or theories of other people. That was a very simple gathering, the highlight of which was the presentation of the resolution of support from the House.) 

Vice President Duterte's potential impeachment has dominated headlines, especially since not one, but two duly-endorsed impeachment complaints were filed in the House of Representatives this week. 

All this happened amid the very public spat between former allies Vice President Duterte and President Marcos as well as the former's legion of supporters in the House. 

“Hindi nga po napag-usapan ‘yung pulitika. More on ang nasabi ng ating Pangulo, kung ano ang mga trabaho na ginagawa ng legislative at ng executive, magtrabaho lang tayo,” Ortega insisted. 

(Politics was never discussed. It was more on what our President said, about the work of the legislative and the executive, let's just do our job.) 

Ortega candidly shared that the dinner itself was good, although he couldn't enjoy half of it due to his allergies with seafood. He said he ate baby back ribs. 

He said there was also an hour of "kuwentuhan" (story session), after which the House members left one by one. Over 200 solons attended the fellowship.

No lobbying in House

In the same presser, Ortega also denied reports of lobbying within the House majority bloc itself to either support or oppose the impeachment complaints against Vice President Duterte. 

He says lawmakers are focused on legislative work and the ongoing hearings.

Ortega revealed that while potentially “impeachable” matters have surfaced during hearings of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability and the quad-committee (quad-comm), the majority bloc had yet to deliberate on the two complaints.

“Hindi pa po namin napag-uusapan as a group and as the majority hanggang ngayon. So never pa namin napag-usapan,” he said.

(We have yet to talk about it as a group and as the majority up to now. So we have never discussed it.)

The good government panel had been investigating allegations that Vice President Duterte misused ₱612.5 million in confidential funds allocated to the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) when she was still education secretary.

Meanwhile, the quad-comm is probing various anomalies, including alleged extrajudicial killings (EJKs) tied to former president Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal war on drugs. Ex-president Duterte is the incumbent Vice President's father.