Impeached anew: House OKs articles vs Sara Duterte again with 257 votes

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte was impeached for a second time on Monday, after 257 lawmakers from the House of Representatives voted in favor of the committee report, which effectively sends the articles of impeachment to the Senate.

READ: LOOK: How your congressman voted in Sara Duterte impeachment

During the plenary session, theHouse committee on justice chairperson, Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro, sponsored Committee Report (CR) No. 261, which was distributed to lawmakers last Wednesday.

After several interpellations from lawmakers opposing the articles, a vote was called — resulting in 255 lawmakers voting in the affirmative, 25 in the negative, and nine abstentions.Earlier in the voting, the House declared that 255 voted in favor, 26 against and nine abstentions.

The impeachment proceedings against Duterte started last Feb. 23, when the four complaints were referred to the committee on justice.  The four groups that filed the raps are:

• Makabayan Coalition, filed on Feb. 2 and endorsed by ACT Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio, Gabriela party-list Rep. Sarah Elago, and Kabataan party-list Rep. Renee Co
• Tindig Pilipinas, filed on Feb. 2 and endorsed by Mamamayang Liberal party-list Rep. Leila de Lima and Akbayan party-list Rep. Percival Cendaña
• clergy members and lawyers, filed on Feb. 9 and endorsed by de Lima
• lawyer Nathaniel Cabrera, filed on Feb. 18 and endorsed by Deputy Speaker Paolo Ortega V and Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante

Committee hearings started on March 2, with the panel discussing the sufficiency of the complaints in substance and in form.  Eventually, the committee decided to set aside the Makabayan Coalition complaint, while Tindig Pilipinas withdrew its petition to avoid legal complexities brought by the filing date.

Since Duterte was first impeached on February 5, 2025, several legal minds believe the next time that a new impeachment complaint can be filed is on February 6, 2026 — in recognition of Article XI, Section 3(5) of the 1987 Constitution, which states that “no impeachment proceedings shall be initiated against the same official more than once within a period of one year.”

On March 4, the committee found the two remaining complaints as sufficient in form and substance, prompting the panel to send out formal notices to Duterte, to offer her camp the chance to answer the allegations.  On March 16, 2026, Duterte beat the deadline and sent a consolidated answer ad cautelam, but complainants deemed it a non-answer.

When the complainants said that they will no longer reply to Duterte’s answer, on March 18, the committee went straight to the determination of sufficiency of grounds mentioned.  After sufficient grounds were established, the committee held a hearing on March 25 to issue subpoenas for potential witnesses and documents that may be used as evidence.

Three clarificatory hearings were held: on April 14, the committee tackled allegations of confidential fund (CF) misuse and allegations made by Duterte’s former aide, Ramil Madriaga, including claims that Duterte tasked her to distribute CF to different recipients.

Madriaga said this is the P125 million CF allocated to the Office of the Vice President in 2022, which he said was disbursed in less than 24 hours, and not the originally stated 11 days.

On April 22, allegations of unexplained wealth and failure to fully disclose her assets in the Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) were discussed. The hearing featured a report from the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), where Executive Director Buenaventura confirmed that they saw covered and suspicious transactions made by Duterte and her relatives.

Buenaventura said that they saw 630 covered transactions and 33 suspicious transactions, totaling to P6.77 billion, that were made by the vice president and her family.

READ: AMLC confirms suspicious transactions made by Sara Duterte, kin 

Later in the day, Mamamayang Liberal Party-list Rep. Leila de Lima randomly picked 18 transactions posted in Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV’s affidavit against Duterte, asking if this would match the records at AMLC’s hand.

Eventually, Buenaventura said that while they cannot divulge information about the nature of the transfers, 18 out of the 18 transactions identified by de Lima were confirmed to be part of AMLC’s records.

Last April 29, the committee talked about Duterte’s threats to ranking officials, including President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., first lady Liza Araneta Marcos, and former House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez.

On the same day, the justice panel unanimously voted in favor of motions to declare the existence of probable cause.  The secretariat said that all 53 members present voted in the affirmative.

READ: House justice panel finds probable cause to impeach Sara Duterte 

Then, on May 4, 55 members of the committee voted to approve the committee report.

READ: Luistro: Justice panel may approve Sara Duterte impeach report by May 4 

According to CR No. 261, the two complaints were consolidated into four grounds:

• culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, and betrayal of public trust through the systematic liquidation misuse, misappropriation, and irregularity of confidential funds amounting to P500 million under the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and P112.5 million under the Department of Education (DepEd)
• culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust when Duterte amassed unexplained wealth manifestly disproportionate to her lawful income and earnings during her incumbency as a public official
• bribery, graft and corruption, culpable violation of the Constitution, and betrayal of public trust when she gave monetary gifts or payments to DepEd officials to induce the violation and circumvention of procurement and other related laws
• culpable violation of the Constitution, high crimes, and betrayal of public trust by contracting for the assassination of the president, the first lady, and the former speaker of the House, by making grave threats, and by actively inciting sedition against the republic

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