THE House of Representatives did it again – impeached Vice President Sara Duterte via staggering numbers.
Information gathered by The PH Insider showed 255 congressmen in favor of the ouster, while 26 stood firm against the fresh bid to oust the second highest elective official in the land. Nine House members played safe, and opted to abstain.
Interestingly, the 1987 Constitution requires just 106 votes (equivalent to one third of the total number of House members) for the charges to be transmitted to the Senate which will act as impeachment court.
The grounds for impeachment include culpable violation of the 1987 Constitution, graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust, bribery, and other high crimes.
In 2025, the House of Representatives also voted to impeach Duterte with 215 yes votes. However, the Supreme Court declared the impeachment void in view of its “unconstitutionality.”
The House Committee on Justice in its report said that the Vice President committed the offenses based on the following articles of impeachment:
a. Systematic misuse, misappropriation, and irregular liquidation of confidential funds amounting to P500 million released to the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and P112.5 million released to the Department of Education (DepEd) during her tenure as Education chief
b. Amassing unexplained wealth manifestly disproportionate to her lawful income and earnings during her incumbency as a public official
c. Failure to fully and truthfully disclose all her and her spouse’s assets, liabilities, and net worth in her statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN), including in her SALN for the years 2022, 2023, and 2024
d. Failure to divest, and instead, willfully continued, all her business interests during her tenure as vice president for the years 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025
e. Giving monetary gifts or payments to DepEd officials to induce the violation and circumvention of procurement and other related laws
f. Contracting for the assassination of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., First Lady Liza Marcos, and the former Speaker of the House and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, by making grave threats, and by actively inciting sedition against the republic.
Items a, e, and f constitute Articles 1, 3, and 4, while items b, c, and d are all subsections of Article 2 of the articles of impeachment.
Justice committee chair Gerville Luistro, in her sponsorship speech, said Vice President Sara Duterte should explain the P6.7 billion in bank transactions involving her and her husband, Manases Carpio, which were not declared in their joint filing of Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN).
According to Luistro, the Articles of Impeachment are purely based on evidence, not gossip.
