MANILA, Philippines ? (UPDATE) Groups seeking to impeach Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez declared initial victory when the House justice committee on Tuesday voted that the two impeachment complaints were sufficient in substance.

Partylist Representatives Teddy Casino of Bayan Muna and Arlene ?Kaka? Bag-ao of Akbayan, endorsers of the complaints, said this was the first time that the committee allowed an impeachment complaint to be fully deliberated by the body, unlike the past years when they were immediately killed.

Gutierrez will be given a copy of the complaints and has 10 days to respond. She may also be invited to answer the charges in the succeeding hearings.

Iloilo Representative Niel Tupas Jr. has set the next hearing of the committee on September 21.

?We are elated that for the first time in the history of Congress, an impeachment complaint hurdled the sufficiency in substance,? Casino said.

?We await what will happen in the next stage and we hope the Ombudsman immediately responds to the complaint so the process can begin,? he added.

Bag-ao said the House made a ?historic vote? by paving the way for the full deliberation of the complaints.

?We are excited to get ready with our evidence that we will use in filing the articles of impeachment,? she said.

Deputy speaker and Quezon Representative Lorenzo ?Erin? Tanada III said the committee made headway this time when it allowed due process to take its course.

?This is the first time that we will allow the respondent to answer the charges, this is what they are asking due process, so it?s not what happened in the previous impeachment complaints when it is killed immediately and there is no due process, now even the respondent is given the right to answer,? he said.

After Gutierrez has submitted a reply to the committee, complainants will have three days to make a reply. Both parties are given three days each more to file their rejoinders.

Hearings would be conducted, where Gutierrez may be called to answer the allegations. After this, the committee will vote anew if there is ground to impeach her, Tupas said.

Whatever the outcome of the voting would be, the committee is tasked to submit a report to the plenary for its approval.

The voting on the sufficiency in substance came despite attempts by some members of the minority bloc to delay the proceedings by questioning the filing and referral of two complaints.

Even the minutes of the last meeting took a long time before it was approved as some minority lawmakers refused to approve it.

Camiguin Representative Pedro Romualdo also took time to argue that the impeachment rules could not yet be in effect, and thus the proceedings of the committees were not valid since they were published in newspapers only last September 2. He said that the law requires that rules of Congress will be effective only 15 days after their publication.

?Considering that there was publication and the provision of the law says that its effectivity should be 15 days after, then we should initiate our investigation after the lapse of 15 days,? Romualdo said.

But Majority leader and Mandaluyong Representative Neptali Gonzales II said the 15-day requirement only applies to the rules of inquiry in aid of legislation.

?This is the only time that the rules on impeachment were ever published because in the past there was no publication. As to the requirement of publication, it doesn?t matter if we publish or not because the Constitution requires only publication of rules of inquiry in aid of legislation,? he said.

The panel voted 41-14 to find sufficient in substance the first complaint, which alleged that Gutierrez, an appointee of Pampanga Representatives and former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in December 2005, was culpable of violating the Constitution and betraying public trust over her inaction on the alleged murder case of Navy Ensign Philip Pestano, the arrest of former Akbayan partylist Representative Risa Hontiveros in 2006 in a rally, and the botched national broadband network agreement with Chinese firm ZTE Corporation

The second complaint was also found sufficient in substance with a 41-16 vote. The complaint was filed over Gutierrez?s ?failure and omission to act promptly . . . on the anomalous disbursement of funds and other anomalous transactions? in the case of the P729-million fertilizer fund scam despite Senate Report 54, Commission on Audit findings, and cases filed by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas and other concerned citizens detailing the anomalies and graft ridden irregularities in the transactions.

The two complaints were filed on separate dates ? July 22 and August 3 ? but were referred to the committee on justice at the same time on August 11 at 4:47 p.m.

Even this, however, became a subject of lengthy debates as members of the minority bloc alleged that no two complaints can be entertained by the committee.

Maguindanao Representative Simeon Datumanong insisted that there could be no simultaneous referral of the two complaints to the committee, saying that the first to be read in plenary should be consider the first one to be referred.

Gonzales countered, saying that, ?somebody has yet to invent a manner by which the two (complaints) can be read at the same time.?

?Nothing prevents us from consolidating the two impeachment complaints, if the respondent has a problem about it then it?s up to her to question it before the Supreme Court,? Gonzales added.

Under the Constitution, only one impeachment complaint can be filed in one year against an impeachable official such as the Ombudsman.

But Tupas earlier said that the impeachment complaint is deemed initiated when they are referred to the committee, and in such a case when the two complaints were referred simultaneously to the committee, both can be accepted.