By Jose Cielito Reganit
MANILA – The House Committee on Justice on Wednesday declared the two remaining impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte sufficient in substance.
In separate motions without objection, both the complaints filed by Fr. Jose Saballa et al. and by lawyer Nathaniel Cabrera gathered 54 yes votes, one no vote, and zero abstentions.
The impeachment complaints mainly accuse the Vice President of betrayal of public trust, culpable violation of the Constitution over the alleged misuse of PHP612.5 million in confidential funds, and threatening to kill President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Marcos and then-House Speaker Martin Romualdez.
Duterte was ordered to file her answer to the impeachment complaints within 10 calendar days.
Before the voting, House justice committee chair Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro clarified that finding the impeachment complaint sufficient in substance is not tantamount to declaring the Vice President guilty of impeachable offenses.
“This is the stage where we ask: Do the allegations rise to the level of impeachable offenses? Do these complaints meet the constitutional threshold to move forward? And [more] importantly, are the allegations credible enough to justify moving forward with the process?” Luistro said. “At this stage, we are not determining guilt.”
House Senior Deputy Speaker Ferdinand Hernandez of South Cotabato also said finding the impeachment complaints against the Vice President sufficient in substance is not a verdict for or against Duterte.
“Our vote today is not a verdict of guilt nor an act of condemnation. It is simply a decision whether the constitutional process should move forward,” Hernandez said.
Luistro also clarified that the panel was determining the sufficiency in substance of each complaint as a whole and not on the basis of the individual grounds cited.
“The rules say we will be determining the sufficiency in substance on the basis of the entire impeachment complaint. What is being determined is the sufficiency in substance of the complaint and not the individual grounds,” Luistro told members.
She said the committee went through each ground cited in the complaints only to provide lawmakers with a broader understanding of the allegations before casting their vote.
“We adopted the deliberation that we had in the prior impeachment proceedings — that is, by going over all the grounds, only to give a better and wider perspective to all the justice members to come up with their individual judgment,” Luistro said. (With a report from Zady De Layola/PNA)
