House leaders: Fresh impeach raps vs. Sara Duterte compliant with SC ruling

House leaders on Monday said the filing of two new impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte are compliant with the recent Supreme Court ruling upholding the earlier decision that the impeachment case filed in 2025 against the latter is unconstitutional.

House justice panel chairperson Gerville Luistro of Batangas, as well as vice chairpersons Belle Zamora of San Juan City and Keith Flores of Bukidnon, House public accounts chairperson Terry Ridon of Bicol Saro party-list made the position in light of the two separate impeachment complaints filed by two opposition groups against the Vice President on Monday morning.

In a press conference, Luistro said based on the original decision of the Supreme Court in July 2025, the one-year bar in filing an impeachment complaint against Duterte started on February 5, 2025.

"However, if you are referring to the [January 28, 2026] resolution recently issued by the Supreme Court, they were saying that the first impeachment complaint filed on December 2, 2024…due to inaction of the House, was deemed initiated when the period of 10 session days lapsed [on January 14, 2025],” she said.

Luistro was referring to the House rules mandating the Secretary General to refer the verified impeachment complaints filed before it to the Office of the Speaker and for the Speaker to enlist those complaints under Order of Business for plenary section within 10 session days.

“That is why by implication, by January 15, 2026 nag-lapse na ang one year prohibition period (The one year prohibition has already lapsed)," she added.

Zamora, for her part, said the SC changing the interpretation of a session day should be the clincher.

Under existing House rules, a session day only ends if there is an adjournment of session. As such, a session day can last multiple days, unlike a calendar day which only lasts 24 hours.

“The Supreme Court said [under its January 28 resolution] that a session day for purposes of impeachment proceedings, and the impeachment being a very important process, a session day is equivalent to a calendar day. As such, the timeline [on the reckoning of the one year bar] was adjusted by the Supreme Court,” Zamora pointed out.

“And based on the January 28 resolution, the first impeachment complaint against the Vice President was filed on December 2, 2025. So they counted [session days equivalent to calendar days], that would make January 15 as the reckoning point. Kaya po nag-file [sila] ngayon kasi that's the first session day after the period, after the issuance of the January 28 Supreme Court resolution,” she added.

The January 28 resolution was the SC ruling on the motion for reconsideration filed by the House of Representatives on the High Court’s July 2025 decision.

Ridon, however, said the House can choose to wait until February 6 before referring the two impeachment complaints against the Vice President to the House justice panel to ensure that the initiaiton of an impeachment complaint will not violate the one-year bar rule.

“I’d say that is the safe period for referral because the referral to the House justice committee will be the record for initiation of impeachment proceedings,” he said.

Ridon and Flores, however, clarified that the impeachment complaints against the Vice President this year do not necessarily have to go through House justice panel deliberations.

“The express route can still be done. If one-third of the House plenary decides to file an impeachment case against the Vice President on February 6, that gets to proceed to a Senate impeachment trial as it should,” Ridon said.

“At this point, the House is yet to determine if it will go the House justice committee route or the one-third plenary vote route,” Flores added.—AOL, GMA Integrated News