MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte said the impeachment complaints that were filed against her had been planned as early as May 2023 through the efforts of the Makabayan bloc and the allies of former speaker Martin Romualdez at the House of Representatives. Speaking at the pilot episode of her SMNI TV program "Ibalik ang Tapang at Malasakit" on Friday, Duterte said that the issue of confidential funds, which is one of the grounds cited in her impeachment case, has been raised by some members of the bloc when she was still vice chairman of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). "They said that if I became NTF-ELCAC vice chair, I would control more confidential funds. So as early as May 11, 2023, they already have a script," Duterte said. She also accused former House Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Stella Luz Quimbo of putting the narrative that the P125 million confidential fund of the Office of the Vice President was spent in just 11 days. Duterte also said that the members of the Makabayan bloc met with then speaker Romualdez, which led to a "partnership" against them. She reiterated that the Commission on Audit gave the OVP two Audit Observation Memoranda that specifically stated that the agency has an "unmodified opinion," meaning that its finances were in compliance with the agency's auditing rules. Duterte also defended the use of confidential funds, saying these were used in areas where there is a concentration of threats to education and children, such as criminality, insurgency and violent extremism.