A 22-10 committee vote has effectively cleared two of the four impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte from consideration, leaving only a pair of petitions still active in the House of Representatives.
The House committee on justice, chaired by Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro, took up the constitutional question of whether the Makabayan Coalition’s complaint — submitted to the Office of the House Secretary General on February 2 — was filed too early to be valid.
At issue was Section 3(5), Article XI of the 1987 Constitution, which bars impeachment proceedings from being initiated against the same official more than once within a one-year period. Several lawmakers on the panel argued that the clock on that restriction began running from February 5, 2025, the date the fourth complaint — bearing the signatures of 215 lawmakers and later struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional — was formally filed. Under that interpretation, a new complaint could not be initiated until February 6, 2026, making Makabayan’s February 2 submission four days premature.
After deliberation on whether the petition met the threshold of sufficiency in form, the committee voted 22 to 10, with no abstentions, to set it aside.
A second complaint has also been withdrawn, though the article does not detail by whom. That leaves the field narrowed to two remaining petitions: one brought by a group of clergy members and lawyers, and a separate complaint filed by attorney Nathaniel Cabrera.
