VP Sara Duterte faces fresh impeachment complaint

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The Supreme Court initially said petitioners had to wait until February 6 to file a new complaint against Sara Duterte. In its new ruling, it declared that the one-year bar had already lapsed on January 15.

MANILA, Philippines – Progressive leaders who submitted the first batch of impeachment petitions against Vice President Sara Duterte last year filed a fresh complaint against her on Monday, February 2.

The move came after the Supreme Court adjusted to an earlier date the expiration of Duterte’s one-year immunity against impeachment.

Originally, the Supreme Court said complainants had to wait until February 6 to file a new complaint against the Vice President; in its new ruling, it said the one-year bar for Duterte lapsed on January 15.

The new complaint echoes allegations from the first petition last year — that Duterte committed betrayal of public trust over her alleged misuse of public funds.

The three-member Makabayan bloc endorsed the complaint.

The complaint they filed last year, alongside two other petitions against the Vice President, were never referred by the House leadership to the justice committee, which was the original legal signal that the impeachment process had technically been initiated. Instead, the House acted on the fourth complaint which met the constitutional requirement of having been signed by one-third of all House members.

In affirming the unconstitutionality of Sara Duterte’s impeachment, the SC said even the non-referral to the justice committee of a properly verified complaint endorsed by a House member within constitutional periods is deemed as an initiation of the complaint.

In the 19th Congress, 215 out of 306 lawmakers — or more than two-thirds of the House — backed Duterte’s impeachment, but it remains to be seen whether impeachment advocates can muster the same level of support this time around amid a volatile political landscape.

There are more vocal Duterte supporters in the House of the 20th Congress than in the previous one. The Vice President’s status as frontrunner of the 2028 presidential elections also make it challenging for anti-Duterte lawmakers to court fence-sitters who don’t want to take the risk of upsetting a potential future president.

The House is also no longer led by Leyte 1st District Representative Martin Romualdez, a political nemesis of the Vice President.

The filing of the complaint against Duterte coincides with the first day of the House justice committee hearing on the impeachment complaints against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

The two complaints against Marcos cite his role in the public works scandal and the overall budget mess, although the first petition also want the President removed from office for allegedly enabling the detention of former president Duterte in The Hague, and the President’s alleged drug addiction. – Rappler.com