The prosecution gave up three of its four impeachment articles. Now it says the paper trail is going to the Ombudsman, which is a rather roundabout way of saying the case isn't over.
House prosecutor Joel Chua said on Saturday, Oct. 17, that the House prosecution panel will give the Office of the Ombudsman the evidence it presented in Vice President Sara Duterte's impeachment trial, so that records behind the withdrawn charges stay available for possible criminal investigation, according to a report by Journal News Online published Oct. 18. The withdrawn articles covered alleged misuse of confidential funds, bribery and grave threats; only the unexplained-wealth article remains before the Senate impeachment court.
What was said
Chua, speaking at the Saturday News Forum, confirmed the panel will comply with a request from Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla, who had asked prosecutors for records on the Vice President's questioned confidential-fund spending. According to Journal News Online, Chua said that dropping the articles "does not mean" the Vice President is free from accountability, and that accountability would continue through criminal proceedings.
He also said the grave-threat charge, Article IV of the impeachment complaint, is already before a Quezon City Regional Trial Court, and that the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, which he chaired in the 19th Congress, had earlier sent its own committee report on the confidential-fund spending to the Ombudsman.
The numbers behind the funds
Journal News Online noted that congressional probes covered confidential-fund allocations totaling ₱612.5 million for the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education. Separately, on Oct. 5 the Commission on Audit denied with finality the OVP's motion for reconsideration on ₱73.287 million in disallowed confidential expenses from December 2022, as the same report recounts.
Taken together, the sequence is worth spelling out: the House impeached, the Senate court allowed three articles to be withdrawn, and the same evidence is now being routed to an office that can file criminal charges but is not bound by the impeachment calendar or the Senate's voting math.
What is still unknown
The report does not say when the evidence will be delivered, which exhibits will be included, or whether the Ombudsman has opened a formal case-build on the OVP funds. It also carries no response from Vice President Duterte or her camp to Chua's remarks. The Ombudsman and the courts, the report notes, will decide independently whether the records support charges against Duterte or anyone else.
An accountability process that discards charges in one forum and re-files the paperwork in another invites an obvious question that no official has yet answered publicly: if the evidence is strong enough to hand to a prosecutor, why was it withdrawn from the trial? Chua's remarks, as reported, do not explain the tactical reasoning.
Context
The OVP's 2022 confidential-fund spending, including the ₱125 million used within days in December 2022, has been the central accountability thread of the Duterte impeachment. Pulpulitiko has previously reported on the COA's final disallowance and on the Palace's challenge to the Vice President to explain the spending; the OVP has said it would pursue legal remedies but has not publicly accounted for the money in detail.
Remulla marked his first year as Ombudsman this month with a tally of flood-control cases but no reported convictions, which is a useful reminder that a referral to his office is the start of a long road, not the end of one.
Sources
- Journal News Online, "Chua to turn over impeachment evidence to Ombudsman for possible cases vs VP Duterte," Oct. 18, 2026 — https://journalnews.com.ph/chua-to-turn-over-impeachment-evidence-to-ombudsman-for-possible-cases-vs-vp-duterte/