THE House Committee on Justice on Tuesday concluded its deliberations on the third impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte, finishing discussions on all six grounds cited in the petition and moving closer to a vote on whether the complaint is sufficient in substance.
The panel, chaired by Batangas Rep. Gerville “Jinky Bitrics” Luistro, took up the third complaint after it had, on Monday, set aside the first for violating the Constitution’s one-year bar on initiating multiple impeachment proceedings against the same official and approved the withdrawal of the second, leaving two active cases for consideration.
Lawmakers examined each allegation under the constitutional standard for impeachment, focusing on whether the complaint contains a recital of facts that, if true, would constitute impeachable offenses.
A vote on the sufficiency in substance of the six grounds is expected after the committee finishes deliberations on the fourth complaint on Wednesday.
The third complaint, filed by Fr. Jose Saballa and others and endorsed by ML Party-list Rep. Leila De Lima, accuses Duterte of culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust.
The six grounds include allegations of plunder and graft involving ₱500 million in confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President for fiscal years 2022 and 2023; misuse of at least ₱112.5 million in confidential funds of the Department of Education for fiscal year 2023; corruption and bribery of DepEd officials; contracting to murder or assassinate the President, the First Lady and the former Speaker of the House; unexplained wealth and failure to fully disclose assets in her Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth in violation of Section 17, Article XI of the 1987 Constitution; and acts of political destabilization amounting to sedition and insurrection.
Throughout the hearing, lawmakers emphasized that the panel was not yet ruling on the truth of the allegations, but only on whether the complaint meets the threshold requirement of sufficiency in substance.
Committee Vice Chair Ysabel Maria Zamora of San Juan City reminded members to confine their review to the complaint itself.
“Rule 3, Section 5 of the House Rules on Impeachment Proceedings states that the requirement of substance is met if there is a recital of facts constituting the offense charged and determinative of the jurisdiction of the committee,” Zamora said.
“So we have to confine ourselves within the four corners of the complaint to check if there is a recital of facts which will show the nexus with the impeachable offenses charged.”
The committee is expected to take up the fourth and last remaining complaint next, before voting on whether the grounds in both cases are sufficient in substance.
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