by Diego Morra
For the past four years, the Filipino people have subsidized Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio inordinate wanderlust, her regular foreign travels and vacations, with the people not receiving any report about what she did and failed to do on official missions, pampered her with billions to mismanage, misappropriate and misallocate at the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd.)
On July 7, 2026, she stretched her luck by writing to the Senate that it must pay for the meals, snacks and other victuals for her defense panel in the impeachment trial, along with the witnesses, security aides and the scores of consultants, staff members and whoever else Sara fancies to be needed in making her gallant defense before the chamber. Her request raised eyebrows not only among senators but also the House prosecution panel, the private prosecutors, the local and foreign journalists covering the trial and the continuing absence of Sara in a proceeding in which she is the star witness who can corroborate or debunk all the four impeachment articles lodged against her. If civility were the only gauge, the Senate, being the host, is mandated by common sense to provide food and snacks during the trial.
Yet, here comes Sara, The Paranoid, raising an issue about the defense panel members and the whole Sara gang to be held securely in their holding room and be nourished amply and safely. She had the audacity to send an official letter to formalize her plea and ask that the Senate pay for the food, the snacks, coffee, tea or even sympathy. Not yet finished, Sara asked that the caterer of the OVP be the one contracted to prepare the safe, edible and nutritious food to her flock. This is as stupid as stupid gets, or stupid on stilts as Americans say. In the Philippines, the host provides and the guests consume. There is no Dutch treat. It would be impolite to require a guest to pay for his or her food. It is rude for Sara to ask that the Senate subsidize the nutritional needs of her people.
It is implied in Sara’s letter that there might be a risk to the safety and gustatory delight of her lawyers, witnesses and employees for them to consume food supplied by the Senate caterer. The letter is not only insulting but a demand for freeloading. It also raises the matter of Sara’s paranoia, that curious switch working in her brain that suggests some evil force will try to poison her lawyers, witnesses and employees. This is not surprising since the Duterte dynasty has been proven as the source of the bogus Oplan Ramanov assassination plot. Sara, her brother Baste and one satrap named Princess Maui, came up with the idea that the Marcoses, like the Romanovs, might be massacred. This was the reason by Sara and her ilk evaporated when asked by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to talk about the so-called plot to eliminate the Duterte dynasty.
For creating a non-issue for the sheer need to dominate a news cycle, Sara’s camp wrote an unnecessary missive that said a volume about the urbanidad of the OVP. In retort, the House prosecution panel rejected the request for Senate-paid catering for Sara’s team. One lawmaker noted that since Sara has promised not to spend a single centavo from the OVP budget for her foreign travel from July 16 to July 31, she might as well foot the bill for the food and refreshments of her legal defense team, consultants, employees and others. The House panel found Sara’s request not only improper but downright comical. The prosecutors did not request any special arrangement for food. The Senate is not expected to seek reimbursement from Sara for the food consumed by her group during the trial.
House Deputy Speaker Janette Garin wondered why the OVP must seek such a special treatment, considering that it has its own budget and they can actually charge food expenses to their office. “Wala kaming ganoong request because in the history of having Senate proceedings, usually naman kapag may meeting and if they serve snacks, then tinatanggap ‘yun,” she added. Senate observers said that if Sara were suspicious of the food served during the impeachment trial, she can order food from no less than 100 Filipino-owned fastfood chains or from five-star hotels in Pasay and Manila for their civilized, poison-free meals. Sara’s request covered the serving of food and beverages served exclusively in their designated holding area and prepared and served by an accredited caterer of the OVP, which means food cannot be served to them right at the venue of the trial. A hungry lawyer is a good defense counsel?
To justify the request, Sara said it is “necessary to safeguard the safety and well-being of the defense team, support staff, and witnesses, ensure their full and effective participation, and support the orderly and uninterrupted conduct of the proceedings.” She then asked the Senate to shoulder the “reasonable costs” of the arrangements, saying they are required solely in connection with the impeachment proceedings. “We trust that the Senate will recognize the necessity of these arrangements and approve their implementation for the entire duration of the trial,” Sara concluded.
Senators quickly threw a monkey wrench into Sara’s plea. Senator Panfilo Lacson said curtly: “I cannot support this for one simple reason: Items 2 and 3 may be violative of the government procurement law.” He added: “The Senate has our own caterer who went through the regular bidding process. This letter not only is asking the Senate to use only the OVP caterer but also pay for their services. This is the dangerous and highly questionable part. We can’t justify the use of Senate funds to pay another agency’s caterer.”#