House Committee on Justice votes 55-0; report sent to the plenary for debates
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/4 May)– Voting 55-0, the House Committee on Justice Monday morning approved its committee report and resolution on the Articles of Impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte, setting the stage for debates at the plenary.
If approved, the Articles of Impeachment will be transmitted to the Senate and the Upper House will have to convene as an impeachment court and try the case against the Vice President ‘forthwith’.
Batangas 2nd District Representative Gerville R. Luistro, chairperson of the Committee on Justice, said members of the Committee found probable cause to impeach Duterte for culpable violation of the Constitution, bribery, graft and corruption, other high crimes, and betrayal of public trust.
Under Article XI, Section 3(3) of the Constitution, a vote of at least one-third of all the Members of the House will be necessary either to affirm a favorable resolution with the Articles of Impeachment of the Committee on Justice, or override its contrary resolution.
The Committee convened on Monday to deliberate and finalize the drafts of the committee report and resolution following the conclusion of the hearing proper on the two impeachment complaints held on March 25 and April 14, 22, and 29, 2026.
Duterte was absent from all proceedings.
Citing Sec. 9 of the House Rules of Procedure in the Impeachment Proceedings, Luistro said the report and resolution “will be calendared for consideration by the House within 10 session days from receipt thereof.”
Kabataan Party-list representative Renee Co expressed her reservations about some substantive matters in the two documents, including the inclusion of the act of inciting to sedition as forming the grounds of impeachment.
“The bigger reason is political, which is that it is being used unfairly and unjustly against critics and activists. As the Philippine law broadly defines it as any speech in any form that generates hate against the government and any of its officers,” she said.
She maintained that instead of the crime of inciting to sedition, the “crime of grave threats to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and public security in general should be enough.”
During the April 29 hearing, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) showed a video of the Vice President’s November 23, 2024 press conference, where she stated that she had instructed an assassin to kill Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and then-Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez if she were killed.
The lawmakers also examined the statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALNs) of Duterte and her husband, lawyer Mans Carpio, obtained from the Office of the Ombudsman, and compared these with records of the bank transactions traced to their accounts, which were obtained from the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).
Duterte’s total assets amounted to P98 million, with liabilities of P9.950 million, resulting in a net worth of P88.5 million as of 2024, while records from the AMLC showed more than P6.7 billion in covered and suspicious transactions linked to the Vice President and her spouse. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
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