Joel Chua prefers campaigning over minding Sara Duterte’s remark
Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua —PHOTO FROM HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte — Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua prefers to focus on his reelection bid rather than discuss Vice President Sara Duterte’s derogatory remark about shoving an apple down his throat until he dies.
In a message to INQUIRER.net on Sunday, Chua said he would focus on his campaign first, especially with two weeks remaining before the 2025 midterm elections.
“Right now, I would focus first on my campaign. We have two weeks to go,” Chua said when asked if he would seek legal action over Duterte’s statements, which some consider a threat.
“We’ll stick to the campaign so we would not lose focus,” he added.
Chua, chairperson of the House of Representatives’ committee on good government and public accountability, was the subject of Duterte’s speech during the campaign rally in Manila for the slate of former Mayor Isko Moreno.
Moreno’s candidate for the seat of Manila’s third congressional district is Councilor Apple Nieto.
In her speech, Duterte said that she is giving the apple to Nieto for her to shove it down Chua’s throat until he dies.
READ: Sara Duterte vents anger at Rep. Chua during rally in Manila
Duterte also referred to the “Snow White” fairytale, where the princess was sent to a deep, cursed sleep after biting a poisoned apple.
“Ang apple na ’yan, ibigay mo kay ‘Snow White’ Joel Chua. Alam niyo, ’di ba si Snow White kumain ng apple tapos nabilaukan? Bigay mo yan sa kanya, saksak mo doon sa bibig niya,” Duterte said.
(Give this apple to ‘Snow White’ Joel Chua. You know, Snow White ate an apple and choked. Give that to him and shove that into his mouth.)
Chua’s committee probed the issues hounding the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) under Duterte.
During the course of the probe, irregularities regarding the OVP and DepEd’s confidential fund (CF) expenditures were discovered.
At one point in the hearings, Antipolo City 2nd District Rep. Romeo Acop noticed that one of the acknowledgement receipts (ARs) for the OVP’s CF expenditures was signed by a certain Mary Grace Piattos, whom he said bears a name similar to a restaurant and a potato chip brand.
ARs are proof of payment, or that funding for projects reached its intended beneficiaries, and for the case of OVP and DepEd, these are informants who provided confidential information to authorities.
Later on, Lanao del Sur 1st District Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong showed two ARs — one for OVP and another for DepEd — which were both received by a certain Kokoy Villamin. However, the signatures and handwriting used by Villamin in the two documents differed.
Piattos and Villamin’s names did not appear on the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) database.
The committee also heard accusations from former DepEd undersecretary Gloria Jumamil Mercado, who admitted that she received envelopes containing money from Duterte, which she thinks may have been meant to influence her.
Mercado used to head the DepEd’s procuring division.
The committee’s findings then became the backbone of three impeachment complaints against Duterte, filed before the House in 2024. On February 5, 2025, the House impeached Duterte after 215 lawmakers filed and verified a fourth complaint.
The articles of impeachment were immediately transmitted to the Senate, as the 1987 Constitution requires a trial to start “forthwith” if at least one-third of all House members — in this case, 102 out of 306 — have signed and endorsed the petition.
READ: House impeaches Sara Duterte, fast-tracking transmittal to Senate
Under the constitution, the Senate will act as an impeachment court with sitting senators being judges.
Trial, however, has yet to start as the articles of impeachment were not forwarded to the Senate plenary before the session ended on February 5, which means Congress would have to reconvene first after the election season, or through a special session to discuss the matter.
Duterte has also poked fun at Manila 2nd District Rep. Rolando Valeriano’s appearance, claiming that the lawmaker “accuses her of everything without any evidence.”
Valeriano was one of the lawmakers who filed a resolution asking Chua’s committee to start a probe into Duterte’s CF issues.
