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Alexis Romero - The Philippine Star
January 29, 2026 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang is leaving it up to President Marcos’ legal team to decide whether he would show up at the hearings of the House of Representatives’ justice committee on the impeachment complaint against him.
The committee, led by Batangas 2nd district Rep. Gerville Luistro, is set to start deliberations on the two referred impeachment complaints against Marcos on Feb. 2.
Committee members will determine whether the complaints are sufficient in form and substance.
According to Luistro, the President would be invited to the hearings if the complaints would be found to be sufficient in form and substance. But she stressed it is his prerogative whether to attend the proceedings.
“It depends on the legal team of the President, whether there is a need for that,” Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said at a press briefing yesterday when asked if Marcos would participate in the proceedings.
“We will monitor the proceedings of the House of Representatives with regard to the sufficiency in form and in substance of the said complaints and we will see if there will be an invitation to be sent to the President,” she added.
The complaints to be discussed by the House justice panel include the one filed by lawyer Andre de Jesus and endorsed by Pusong Pinoy party-list Rep. Rep. Jett Nisay.
The complainants said Marcos should be impeached for the “kidnapping” and surrender of former president Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court, as well as for failing to veto the unconstitutional provisions of the past four national budgets and for forming the Independent Commission for Infrastructure to protect his allies involved in corruption.
The second complaint, filed by the Makabayan bloc and endorsed by ACT Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio, Gabriela party-list Rep. Sarah Elago and Kabataan party-list Renee Co, accused Marcos of betrayal of public trust for adopting the baselined-balanced-managed parametric formula that supposedly became the basis for kickbacks in state infrastructure projects.
While Luistro is keen on consolidating the two complaints, retired Supreme Court associate justice Adolf Azcuna said it’s still to be seen how her panel will ultimately deal with the complaints.
“It is up to the committee on whether or not to join the two complaints into one or to treat them separately,” Azcuna told “Storycon” on One News.
“The report of the committee to the House will be the one that will be followed. They may report back two complaints or a single, unified complaint,” he added.
The referral to the justice committee of the two complaints against Marcos has triggered the one-year ban on the filing of another impeachment complaint against the President, Azcuna pointed out.
Asked if the House of Representatives should adopt the rules provided in the recent Supreme Court decision on the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte, the former justice said it is up to the chamber if it would revise its impeachment rules to align with the ruling.
He also said it would be up to lawmakers to figure out how to tackle simultaneous complaints should another one be filed against Duterte once the one-year bar expires next month.
“The Constitution provides that the Congress may adapt rules to implement the provisions on impeachment. They may have rules regarding that particular situation as to how they will treat simultaneous impeachment complaints against both the President and the Vice President. That would be up to Congress to decide on the matter,” Azcuna said.
Luistro earlier said she is confident of the competence of the members of the committee in tackling more than one impeachment complaint at a time.
The Feb. 2 hearing of the justice committee would be held at 10 a.m. at the People’s Center at the Batasan complex.
“Before we actually start the process before the justice committee, it really has to be consolidated because two complaints are not possible to be heard in the justice committee. Upon referral, there has to be consolidation,” Luistro said in a chance interview on Tuesday, referring to the validated complaints.
A third impeachment complaint, filed by a group identified with Vice President Sara Duterte, was not accepted by the Office of the Secretary General of the House of Representatives due to the absence of its chief at the time of submission.
“We were surprised that the Office of the Secretary General of the House of Representatives refused to accept our impeachment complaint,” lawyer Ferdinand Topacio said at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum yesterday.
Topacio said executive director Marmoi Salonga told them he had no authority to receive the complaint in the absence of House Secretary General Cheloy Garafil. – Janvic Mateo, De- lon Porcalla, Mark Ernest Villeza, Jose Rodel Clapano
