House refers two impeach raps vs. Marcos to Justice panel; a one-year ban starts

The House of Representatives on Monday referred the two impeachment complaints against President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. to the House Committee on Justice, kicking in the constitutional ban on future impeachment complaints against the President until January 26, 2027.

The referral happened during the House plenary session on Monday, January 26.

The two impeachment complaints filed against the President are the following:

• complaint filed by lawyer Andre de Jesus and endorsed by Pusong Pinoy party-list Rep. alleging that the President should be impeached due to betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution, among others, for ordering and enabling the kidnapping and surrender of ex-President Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court (ICC), being a drug addict whose condition impairs his judgment and leadership, failing to veto unprogrammed appropriations and other unconstitutional provisions of the national budget for 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026, among others
• complaint filed by Makabayan coalition endorsed by party-list opposition lawmakers Antonio Tinio of ACT Teachers, Sarah Elago of Gabriela and Renee Co of Kabataan party-list, alleging that the President committed betrayal of public trust over the adoption of the Baselined-Balanced-Managed (BBM) Parametric Formula in allocating infrastructure projects that allegedly led to "ghost", substandard, and overpriced flood management projects, among others

Under the House rules and the Constitution, the House Secretary General should immediately transmit the impeachment complaint to the Office of the House Speaker.

The House Speaker is then mandated to calendar the impeachment complaint in the Order of Business for plenary action within 10 session days upon receipt of the complaint.

The House Committee on Justice will then consolidate these complaints for evaluation if they are sufficient in form and substance. After the said hearing, and by a majority vote of all its members, the House justice panel will submit its report to the House within 60 session days from such referral, together with the corresponding resolution.

The resolution will then be calendared for consideration by the House plenary within 10 session days from receipt thereof.

A vote of at least one-third of all the members of the House shall be necessary either to affirm a favorable resolution with the Articles of Impeachment of the Committee, or override its contrary resolution.

The Constitution, however, provides that “no impeachment proceedings should be initiated against the same official more than once within a period of one year.”

The De Jesus complaint was filed last January 19 and was received by the office of the House Secretary General Cheloy Garafil on January 21.

Two other groups, namely the Makabayan coalition and the group led by former lawmaker Mike Defensor, attempted to file separate impeachment complaints against President Marcos, Jr. last January 22, to no avail.

This is because Garafil’s office refused to receive their respective complaint since Garafil was overseas to receive an award from the Taiwanese government by virtue of her being a former Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) Chairperson and Resident Representative from 2024 to 2025.

MECO is the Philippines’ representative office in Taiwan.

The Makabayan coalition returned to Garafil’s office on Monday, January 26, to file their impeachment complaint against the President. This time, Garafil was already there to receive their complaint.

Garafil’s office transmitted the Makabayan coalition complaint to the Office of Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy III on the same day.

The Order of Business dated January 26, which was publicly disclosed by Tinio, already included the two abovementioned impeachment complaints.

Ahead of Tinio's release of the January 26 Order of Business, Dy opened the session by delivering a speech that underscored the importance of exacting accountability among public officials.

“We must be honest enough to confront the shortcomings of the past. Accountability is not an act of vengeance—it is an act of justice,” Dy said.

Defensor’s group, for its part, has yet to show up in Batasan to file its separate impeachment complaint as of posting time.—LDF, GMA Integrated News