Impeachment articles against Sara Duterte reach House plenary

The committee report on the articles of impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte has reached the plenary of the House of Representatives.

On Tuesday evening, the report was referred to the House Committee on Rules, which will set a schedule for plenary debate and vote.

The articles of impeachment approved by the House Committee on Justice charge the Vice President with betrayal of public trust, culpable violation of the Constitution, corruption, and other high crimes over the following acts:

• misuse/abuse of confidential funds
• unexplained wealth
• bribery and
• plot to assassinate President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., First Lady Liza Marcos, and former Speaker and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez.

At least one-third or 106 of all the 318 House members are required for the official to be impeached.

Once the requisite votes are reached, the articles of impeachment are sent to the Senate, which would forthwith convene as an impeachment court as mandated by the Constitution.

The House, for its part, will elect 11 of its members to serve as public prosecutors for the Vice President’s impeachment trial.

The House public prosecutors may also enlist the help of private prosecutors for the impeachment trial.

In an interview over Balitanghali earlier in the day, House justice committee chairperson and Batangas Second District Rep. Gerville Luistro said the lower chamber will be ready to vote on the Articles of Impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte by May 11.

“Actually, May 11 is just my recommendation… I considered the date when the plenary will be able to transmit the committee report, the Resolution and the Articles of Impeachment to all the House members, including the complainant and the respondent Vice President as provided under the Supreme Court decision on Duterte v. House of Representatives,” she said.

Luistro then explained that assuming that the plenary will be able to transmit the said copies to House members, they will have “Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday within which the House Members should be able to read and study the articles of impeachment.”

“Having said that, on May 11, that is a Monday, we should be ready to do the plenary vote,” she added.

The lawmaker also expressed optimism that the plenary will approve the committee report and that the required 106 votes to impeach the Vice President will be achieved.

“I do not want to preempt what number will be able to get during the plenary vote, but because of the numbers that was yielded in the determination of probable cause as well as the approval of committee report, I think these are sufficient basis for as to believe that it will be approved as well in the plenary,” Luistro said.

She denied reports that the House justice panel was pressured to vote in favor of the impeachment of the Vice President and that several members of the committee are withdrawing their support for the committee report.

“I don’t know any cong who is withdrawing his vote or signature from the determination of probable cause and even from our approval of committee report yesterday. So from my end, I deny that allegation that there are congs who are withdrawing their signatures,” Luistro said in a separate online interview.

Other committee members, like House Deputy Minority Leader Rep. Antonio Tinio and House Committee on Justice Vice Chair Rep. Jose Alvarez, also denied talk that lawmakers have withdrawn support for the committee report. —NB, GMA News