ASEANEWS HEADLINE-VP IMPEACHMENT: ALLEGED BAGMAN TESTIFIES | ‘Dutertes, Marcos had term-share agreement’
A Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) personnel removes the hadcuff of Ramil Madriaga, who identified himself as a former aide and alleged bagman of Vice President Sara Duterte at the House committee on justice hearing on the impeachment complaint against the vice president at the House of Representatives in Quezon City on Tuesday, April 14, 2026. —INQUIRER PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
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WATCH VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0__j_F3cHQk
Marcos, Duterte camps agreed to term-sharing — Madriaga
Marcos, Duterte camps agreed to term-sharing — Madriaga Ramil Madriaga made this allegation during the hearing of the House Committee on Justice. The committee is trying to determine whether there is probable cause to impeach the vice president. In his testimony, Madriaga said that he talked with Sara’s father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, in November 2021. He said Duterte told him that Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. would run as president while his daughter Sara would be his running mate. According to Madriaga, Marcos and Duterte also agreed that by 2025, Marcos will voluntarily step down to give way for a Sara presidency. After Sara took her oath as vice president, Madriaga alleged that Rodrigo Duterte met with several retired AFP generals. They allegedly discussed all the possible scenarios for unseating Marcos by 2025 if he reneges on the term-sharing agreement. In response, former Duterte administration spokesman Salvador Panelo described Madriaga’s affidavit as “nonsense.” He says this was engineered by the political enemies of former President Duterte. Read more: https://tmt.news/2319606
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LIVE: House resumes VP Sara Duterte impeachment proceedings | April 14
LIVE: The House of Representatives’ Justice Panel Committee holds an impeachment hearing on Tuesday, April 14, regarding the impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte. | via Arnel Tacson
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THE alleged bagman of Vice President Sara Duterte, Ramil Madriaga, said Tuesday that former president Rodrigo Duterte, his daughter Sara, and their allies planned to have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. step down by 2025 to give way to her, along with contingency plans to remove him if the deal did not materialize.
Madriaga, in his sworn supplemental affidavit read before the House Committee on Justice on Tuesday, said the supposed agreement was relayed to him by former president Duterte ahead of the 2022 national elections.
“Sometime in November 2021, PRRD mentioned to me that Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. will run for president while Sara will serve as his running mate,” Madriaga said, referring to the former president by the initials PRRD. “PRRD added that a few months ago, BBM and Sen. Imee Marcos visited him to discuss a possible alliance in the 2022 national elections. During this meeting, BBM was able to convince PRRD to have Sara as vice president. However, they also agreed that by 2025, BBM will voluntarily step down to give way for a Sara presidency,” he added.
The Palace spokesman, Undersecretary Claire Castro, said they would issue a statement addressing Madriaga’s account on Wednesday.
Madriaga alleged the objective of the term-sharing arrangement was to allow Sara Duterte to assume the presidency early while remaining eligible to run in 2028.
“After Sara took her oath as vice president, PRRD had a discussion with retired generals of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, where I was also present, regarding all possible scenarios for unseating BBM by 2025 in case he reneges on his promise,” he said.
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“The general objective was to ensure that BBM will only serve less than four years of his term as president, so that Sara, upon assumption of the presidency, will still be eligible for the presidency in 2028,” he added.
Madriaga alleged that one of the scenarios discussed involved undermining the Marcos administration from within.
“I remember that one of the plans considered was to sabotage BBM’s administration by using some of BBM’s own men (either recommended by PRRD for appointment or allied with the Dutertes) to reveal supposed corruption issues that would serve as a precursor for an impeachment complaint,” he said.
He added that more extreme measures were also discussed if Marcos refused to step down.
“In the event that BBM will not voluntarily step down or hand over the presidency to Sara, extraordinary measures of overthrowing BBM will be considered, which include assassination, mass resignation of government officials, civil disobedience, and even an armed assault of Malacañang Palace,” Madriaga said.“It was also considered by PRRD to arrange assassinations or armed hits of several government officials in order to cause massive civil unrest. The resulting civil unrest will be used as a basis to organize a group of military officers to stage a coup,” he added.
Madriaga said he was given a role in the alleged plans.
“One of my assignments was to recruit civil groups, school clubs, fraternities, criminal groups, and syndicates,” he said.
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Madriaga said his claims directly contradict the vice president’s denial that she had any relationship with him.
“Her denial of any affiliation with me is absolutely false. She lied under oath in her perjury complaint against me,” Madriaga said.
His affidavit forms part of the evidence being examined by the House Committee on Justice in connection with impeachment complaints accusing the vice president of, among others, misuse of confidential and intelligence funds.
P125 million spent in one day
In the same hearing of the House Committee on Justice, Madriaga said the P125 million in confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) in 2022 was not spent in 11 days as previously reported, but was instead “disposed of” in less than 24 hours.
Reading his supplemental affidavit, Madriaga said “I personally disposed of the money in less than 24 hours.”
He said the deliveries were made under the vice president’s instructions.
Madriaga said the funds were moved and delivered within hours through a series of coordinated cash transactions involving multiple locations and recipients.
He described in detail a December 2022 operation in which bags of cash, each allegedly containing between P30 million and P35 million, were taken from the Department of Education central office in Pasig City and delivered to various destinations, including Laguna and Quezon City.
Madriaga said the deliveries were carried out allegedly under direct instructions from Duterte and members of the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group, including Col. Dennis Nolasco and Col. Raymund Dante Lachica.
He said the cash was packed in bundles of P1,000 bills, arranged in stacks of P1 million each and sealed in transparent plastic, then transported using multiple vehicles to designated drop-off points.
Madriaga said his account contradicts the vice president’s earlier statements denying any wrongdoing and disputing allegations of irregularities in the use of public funds.
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His last location, he said, was the parking area of the Ombudsman, who was Samuel Martires at the time.
“When we arrived, the guard gave a signal directing us to park in a specific area in the Ombudsman parking lot. We proceeded to the specific area and parked Red Mazda Sedan where the remaining two bags of money were placed,” he said. “We left the keys on top of the left front wheel which is our usual practice when delivering large amounts of money.”
Martires issued a statement casting doubt on Madriaga’s testimony.
“If the public’s perception that I am close to former president Rodrigo Duterte is true, then why would the former president send me money through a nonentity when FPRRD can easily summon me so he can give me money?” “Why will also the VP send me money through an insignificant person when she (VP) doesn’t know me personally? What business does the VP have with me to be sent an amount of money?” Martires said.
He said Madriaga’s statement was inconsistent with his previous sworn statement made in 2025.
Former Duterte administration spokesman Salvador Panelo described Madriaga’s affidavit as “nonsense,” “It’s a lot of nonsense coming from a polluted source engineered by the political enemies of PRRD who will stop at nothing to besmirch his reputation. Madriaga is the face of false and malicious information on VP Sara and PRRD,” Panelo told The Manila Times. Earlier, Panelo’s son, Salvador Paolo Panelo Jr. who is the counsel of the vice president in Madriaga’s perjury case, said his allegations are “pure fiction” and not even remotely believable. The vice president was not present at the hearing, which she has challenged before the Supreme Court. She is not required to attend the hearing but the committee notified her of Tuesday’s hearing.
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“Let us leave the chair for the vice president vacant because we are extending the opportunity to participate to her so long as we continue this proceeding,” said Batangas 2nd District Rep. Gerville Luistro, the committee chairman.
At the start of the hearing’s resumption on Tuesday, Luistro defended the hearing, which she has said is not a trial.
She addressed the accusation that the committee was exceeding its jurisdiction.
“The House initiates. The Senate decides,” Luistro said.
“Under the Constitution, the House has the exclusive power to initiate all cases of impeachment,” she said.
“What we are doing here is not a trial. Our only question is: Is there enough basis for the process to move forward?” she said.
“This committee, therefore, is not overstepping. […] We are simply following the rules — our rules — grounded in the Constitution,” she said.
Luistro said that the committee hearing was not a fishing expedition.
“We know what we are looking for: whether there is probable cause or none,” she said.
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“And it is clear to us: we are not usurping the power of the Senate to decide whether the official is guilty or not guilty,” she said.
The vice president has denied all wrongdoing and said she would address allegations against her in the proper venue, but has gone to the Supreme Court several times to stop the House hearings on the impeachment complaints against her.
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