House impeaches VP Sara Duterte

The House of Representatives on Wednesday impeached Vice President Sara Duterte with 215 congressmen endorsing the verified complaint against her, which has been transmitted to the Senate for her impeachment trial.

According to the complaint approved by the House plenary, the complainants moved to impeach Duterte "based on the grounds of Culpable Violation of the Constitution, Betrayal of Public Trust, Graft and Corruption, and Other High Crimes."

As the 215 endorsers exceeded one-third of the House membership of 306, the complaint went straight to the Senate as provided in the 1987 Constitution.

Senate Secretary Renato Bantug Jr. officially received the Articles of Impeachment against Duterte from House Secretary General Reginald Velasco at about 5:50 p.m.

The impeachment complaint largely stemmed from the House good government and public accountability panel's inquiry on the use of confidential funds by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) under Duterte's leadership.

The inquiry found that the two offices submitted acknowledgement receipts with wrong dates, signatories with no birth records, unnamed signatories and non-readable names of signatories to liquidate disbursed confidential funds to the Commission on Audit (COA).

The three impeachment complaints against the Vice President earlier filed by various groups in December 2024, however, were not included in the complaint backed by House members. Instead, these three complaints were archived.

A two-thirds vote by the Senate is required to convict and remove Duterte from office.

The impeachment complaint provides for seven Articles of Impeachment, namely:

1. conspiracy to assassinate President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. First Lady Liza Marcos, and Speaker Martin Romualdez;
2. malversation of P612.5 Million in confidential funds with questionable liquidation documents;
3. bribery and corruption in the DepEd during Duterte’s tenure by handing out cash to former DepEd Undersecretary Gloria Jumamil-Mercado (Procurement Head), Bids and Awards Committee Member Resty Osias, DepEd Chief Accountant Rhunna Catalan and Special Disbursing Officer Edward Fajarda;
4. unexplained wealth and failure to disclose assets in the Vice President’s Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth where her wealth increased by four times from 2007 from 2017;
5. involvement in extrajudicial killings in Davao City; 
6. destabilization, insurrection, and public disorder efforts, which include: boycotting the State of the Nation Address (SONA) while declaring herself "designated survivor," leading rallies calling for Marcos' resignation, obstructing congressional investigations by ordering subordinates not to comply with subpoenas, threatening bodily harm against the First Couple and Romualdez, among others;
7. the totality of the Vice President’s conduct as the second highest official of the land.

Romualdez said the House’s vote for the impeachment of Duterte is about "upholding the Constitution and ensuring that no public official, regardless of their position, is above the law."

'Political persecution'

In a separate statement, Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte, the brother of the Vice President, decried his colleagues' action against her sister as a sinister political attack.

"The sinister maneuvering of certain lawmakers, led by [Iloilo] Rep. [Janette] Garin, to hastily collect signatures and push for the immediate approval and transmittal of this baseless impeachment case is a clear act of political persecution. This administration is treading on dangerous ground," Congressman Duterte said.

"If they were unfazed by the over one million rallying supporters of the Iglesia Ni Cristo, then they are blindly marching toward an even greater storm—one that could shake the very foundation of their rule. The Filipino people will not sit idly by as this government undermines democracy and silences opposition through fabricated accusations," he added.

GMA News Online has requested comment from Garin regarding Congressman Duterte's statements, but she has yet to respond as of posting time.

The Vice President earlier said she welcomes the impeachment complaints filed against her.

TIMELINE: Impeachment bid vs. VP Sara Duterte

Also on Wednesday, the House plenary elected the following House members as prosecutors for the impeachment trial of Vice President Duterte:

• Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro 
• Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop 
• Manila Rep. Joel Chua 
• 1-Rider party-list Rep. Rodge Gutierrez 
• Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Raul Bongalon 
• General Santos Rep. Loreto Acharon
• 4Ps party-list Rep. Marcelino Libanan 
• Oriental Mindoro Rep. Arnan Panaligan 
• San Juan Rep. Isabel Maria Zamora 
• Iloilo Rep. Lorenz Defensor and
• Bukidnon Rep. Jonathan Keith Flores 

During the House panel's inquiry, it was found that the COA issued a notice of disallowance on the OVP’s use of P73 million confidential funds within 11 days in 2022. At least P69 million of the P73 million disallowed involved the following: P10 million for reward payment; P34.857 million for payment of reward (various goods); and P24.93 million for payment of reward (medicines).

The COA said the OVP did not submit documents showing the success of information gathering and/or surveillance activities to support the acknowledgment receipts for around P69 million of payments of rewards in cash, various goods, and medicines.

Likewise, COA said that P3.5 million of the disallowed P73 million “were used for payment for tables, chairs, desktop computers and printers without specifying that they were intended for the confidential operations/activities undertaken by the OVP, non-compliant with the requirement of Item 4.8.4 of the Joint Circular governing use of confidential fund.”

The last time that the Senate constituted itself as an impeachment court was in 2012 for the impeachment trial of then Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Corona was convicted by the Senate impeachment court of betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution due to his repeated failure to accurately disclose his wealth in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN). — with a report from Hana Bordey/ VDV, GMA Integrated News