The House of Representatives will apply the same constitutional standards to impeachment cases against Vice President Sara Duterte as those used against President Marcos, according to the justice committee chairperson. This comes after the plenary adopted the committee's report dismissing two complaints against the president for lack of substance. However, the complaints against Duterte have not yet been referred to the committee.
In Manila, Rep. Gerville Luistro, chairperson of the justice committee, stated that the House of Representatives will use the same constitutional standards in handling impeachment cases against Vice President Sara Duterte as those applied to cases against President Marcos. She made this announcement after the plenary adopted her committee's findings and recommendations in a report dismissing two impeachment complaints against the president for insufficiency in substance, though they were sufficient in form.
"The people of the Philippines are assured that whatever is the parameter, the deliberation, the approach of the justice committee in handling the impeachment complaints against the President will be adopted for the purpose of evaluating and determining as well the sufficiency in form and substance with respect to the impeachment complaints against the Vice President," Luistro told reporters following the plenary's approval on Tuesday.
However, she emphasized that the impeachment complaints against Duterte have not yet been referred to her committee. "It is not yet in the justice committee. That’s why we haven’t seen yet these impeachment complaints. I heard there are three, but we haven’t seen any of those," she said. The complaints must first be referred by the plenary to the justice committee before it can act.
She also explained that the complaints against the vice president were not discussed last Monday because they were still with the Office of the Speaker. According to Luistro, the Office of the Speaker has 10 session days to include the impeachment complaints in the Order of Business, after which they can be referred to the plenary within three session days.
The first two complaints, filed separately by members of the Makabayan bloc and by a coalition of civil society groups and lawyers, accuse Duterte of betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution in connection with the alleged misuse and mishandling of confidential funds when she was concurrently education chief. A third complaint, filed by another group of lawyers and religious leaders, raises similar accusations centering on her alleged misuse of confidential funds.
