Obviously, the vice president is not the chief executive. The VP is a spare tire, elected to office to succeed the president when conditions warrant. The rationale behind presidential immunity does not apply to him or her.
The exact words of the President when he faced his breakaway PDP-Laban group last weekend were these: 
“They keep on threatening me with lawsuits and everything, Trillanes and itong si Carpio, panay ang takot sa akin na ma-demanda ako.”
He added, “sabi ng batas, na kung presidente ka o bise presidente ka, may immunity ka. E di tatakbo na lang akong bise presidente. And after that tatakbo ulit akong bise presidente at bise presidente at bise presidente.”
This is fake news. There is no law that says the vice president is immune from suit. No such thing as vice presidential immunity under current laws.
Lawyer Edre Olalia said it correctly, “only the President is immune from suit and this is not even spelled out in the present 1987 Constitution — unlike in 1973 Marcos Constitution — but only recognized in prevailing jurisprudence.”
A sitting president is immune from suit by tradition. It means that an explicit constitutional provision is not required for the privilege to exist.
The reason is public convenience. Being President requires the exercise of duties free from any hindrance or distraction. As chief executive the president must give undivided attention to his job. His time may not be wasted fighting off all sorts of cases.
Obviously, the vice president is not the chief executive. The VP is a spare tire, elected to office to succeed the president when conditions warrant. The rationale behind presidential immunity does not apply to him or her.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said so when Vice President Leni Robredo was a respondent in a complaint for sedition filed by the police two years ago. He said that “the present Constitution does not grant the vice president immunity from suit.”
Robredo submitted herself to the process and was able to have the charges against her dismissed on the merits. As far as we recall she did not invoke immunity from suit.
So where is this novel theory of vice-presidential immunity from suit coming from? Neri Colmenares says that this strategy to escape accountability is “legally insane.”
The president is a lawyer who knows, or must know, that his statement has threadbare legal mooring. Why risk getting tagged grossly ignorant of the law?
The answers may be culled from the peripheries of the Duterte-Pacquiao war. It is public knowledge that the fireworks began when the Cusi faction announced Duterte’s automatic nomination for vice president and for him to anoint his running-mate for president.
Pacquiao knew he would not be anointed by Duterte. He is not close enough to the President, and, if lucky, may not be trusted to toe the Davao line when a slew of cases seeking accountability are filed against the outgoing administration.
Immunity from suit will also proceed from control of the executive department. The investigative, enforcement, and prosecutorial arms of government all work for the chief executive.
These institutions may be tapped to shelter those currently in power as the latter are bound to lose their temporary immunity when the next administration succeeds in July 2022.
The President must therefore make sure that the presidential nominee of the party in power is his anointed.
His nomination as vice presidential candidate is needed to make this happen, in keeping with the Cusi script that is now unfolding. It is not necessary that he actually file his certificate of candidacy in October.
It is enough that Duterte names the presidential candidate for the ruling party on the posturing that he will be the vice-presidential candidate campaigning from the palace. Good luck to Koko et al. winning that certification contest in the Commission on Elections.
Thus, it matters not that, along the way, Duterte may utter some statements that are regarded as non-sensical and routinely dismissed as mere jokes. They continue to raise his stock among his fanatical base, and will provide momentum for a dynastic run in 2022./WDJ