Impeachment raps vs. VP Sara sent to House justice panel

The House of Representatives on Monday referred the four impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte to the House justice panel, marking the initiation of the complaints.  

This was the second straight year a complaint was initiated against Duterte.

This action barred any filing of impeachment complaints against the Vice President for a year.

It was the members of the Makabayan coalition and allied groups who filed the first impeachment complaint last February 2, 2026, alleging that the Vice President betrayed public trust due to the following acts: ordering subordinates to prepare implausible accomplishment reports supported by fabricated liquidation reports and falsified documents for submission to the Commission on Audit to support the use of confidential funds; and dereliction of official duty with her willful refusal to recognize congressional oversight during budget deliberations and its authority to conduct inquiries in aid of legislation.

On the same day, civil society organization Tindig Pilipinas and others filed their own impeachment complaint against, accusing the second highest ranking public official of the land of betrayal of public trust, culpable violation of the Constitution, and commission of high crime over the following deeds: Duterte's admission, done in a public broadcast, of contracting an assassin to kill President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr., First Lady Liza Marcos and then-Speaker Martin Romualdez; misuse and malversation of her confidential funds as Vice President and then Department of Education Secretary.

They also said Duterte caused the distribution of monetary gifts to Department of Education officials holding procurement-related functions; amassed unexplained wealth and failed to disclose all her properties and interests in properties in her Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth; and was involved in the extrajudicial killings of the Davao Death Squad during her tenure as mayor of Davao City.

On Monday, February 9, a third impeachment complaint against the Vice President was filed by religious groups, priests, and lawyers for alleged betrayal of public trust, graft and corruption, among others, over the supposed misuse of at least P612 million worth of confidential funds, threatening to kill President Marcos, Jr., and alleged links to drug money, among others.

A fourth impeachment complaint was filed by lawyer Nathaniel Cabrera last February 18, alleging that the Vice President committed betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution, among others, mainly over alleged misuse of P612.5 million of confidential funds and threatening to kill President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. and the Chief Executive’s immediate family.

Madriaga: Boon or bane?

All four impeachment complaints filed against the Vice President included the allegation made by confessed intelligence operative Ramil Madriaga, something not present in the 2024 and 2025 complaints,  which was later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in July 2025 and again in January 2026.

Madriaga, in an affidavit, said that he has worked with Vice President Security and Protection Group members, Army Colonel Dennis Nolasco and Army Colonel Raymund Dante Lachica from July 2022 to April 2023 in tactical transport services, securing Vice President Duterte Sara and other VIPs, conveying highly confidential information, and transporting large amounts of money to several persons as instructed by the Vice President.

Likewise, Madriaga said he was a former intelligence operative and campaign operator assigned by former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte to then Vice Presidential candidate and then Davao City mayor Sara Duterte.

These Madriaga allegations, the complainants said, corroborate the findings already revealed before the inquiry on the OVP’s use of its budget conducted by the House good government and public accountability in 2024.

“The case can stand even without the affidavit of Ramil Madriaga. Why? Because the Vice President, her two offices, submitted fictitious names as alleged recipients of these millions of pesos entrusted to her,” lawyer Amando Virgil Ligutan, one of the complainants under the third impeachment complaint, told reporters after filing the complaint.

“We have certifications from the Philippine Statistics Authority saying that these individuals do not exist. They were not born. They are not dead. They are what they are: fictitious. And here comes, out of the blue, providing the missing link, so to speak, on how the Vice President actually did it. Ramil Madriaga’s affidavit narrates how the P125 million pesos were actually spent in December 2022,” Ligutan added.

Sought to comment on what makes Madriaga credible, House Minority Leader and ML party-list Rep. Leila de Lima said his credibility deserves to be tested during impeachment proceedings, whether at the level of justice panel committee deliberations or before the Senate impeachment trial.

“That [credibility] is best tested here [inside impeachment proceedings],” de Lima told GMA News Online.

“We have witnesses, we have documents to prove that the Vice President violated her oath,” Ligutan said. —LDF, GMA Integrated News