A Philippine House justice committee has given the green light to a pair of impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte, ruling Monday that both filings met the threshold required in form.
The complaints center largely on allegations of public fund mismanagement — charges Duterte rejects — and include accusations that she threatened the life of President Ferdinand Marcos, with whom she has waged a bitter and public political rivalry.
A conviction in a Senate impeachment trial would strip Duterte of her office and disqualify her from seeking the presidency in 2028, a race she recently declared she would enter.
Michael Wesley Poa, speaking on behalf of Duterte’s legal team, said they were watching the committee’s deliberations closely and expected “the same standards” applied in the Marcos hearing to govern proceedings against the vice president.
That reference carried weight. Last month, the same panel dismissed two impeachment complaints against Marcos, finding that corruption allegations tied to a bogus flood control project scandal lacked sufficient substance.
Two other complaints against Duterte did not survive Monday’s session. A filing brought by progressive groups and endorsed by Makabayan lawmakers was rejected in a 22-to-10 vote, with the panel ruling it ran afoul of the constitutional prohibition on multiple impeachment proceedings against the same official within a single year. The complaint had been submitted February 2, but several lawmakers argued that under a Supreme Court ruling — the same ruling that previously halted Duterte’s Senate trial on one-year bar grounds — a new filing could not be accepted before February 6. A fourth complaint was withdrawn by its own complainants in an effort to accelerate the overall process.
This is not Duterte’s first encounter with impeachment. The House moved against her last year, but the Supreme Court ultimately threw out the case on procedural grounds before a Senate trial could begin.
