House panel unanimously finds probable cause to impeach Sara

IMPEACHMENT proceedings against Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio advances in the House of Representatives after the Justice committee on Wednesday unanimously confirmed there is probable cause in two complaints seeking her removal.

In separate votes, 53 committee members unanimously affirmed finding probable cause in the two complaints, which accused Ms. Duterte of misuse of public funds, betrayal of public trust, corruption, and plotting to assassinate President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., First Lady Marie Louise Araneta-Marcos, and former Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez.

“The existence of probable cause has been declared with respect to both the Saballa complaint and Cabrera complaint,” Batangas Rep. Gerville R. Luistro, who chairs the committee, said after the voting. The committee will consolidate the complaints into one Articles of Impeachment, and will reconvene on May 4, the same day congressional session resumes.

In a statement, the defense team of Ms. Duterte said this was “not unexpected, given the direction the proceedings had taken.”

“We respectfully maintain that the proceedings before the committee departed from the constitutional design. Instead of confining itself to the verified complaints and their attachments, the process expanded into matters that properly belong to a full trial,” the defense team told reporters over Viber.

Ms. Duterte faces a range of accusations fueling the impeachment drive, including claims she misused hundreds of millions of pesos in funds earmarked for surveillance and intelligence work under the Office of the Vice-President and the Education department during her tenure as its secretary.

The filings also include accusations she amassed wealth disproportionate to her income, efforts to destabilize the government and plotting to assassinate Mr. Marcos, his wife and cousin.

Once proceedings move to the House floor, one-third of lawmakers must vote to either endorse the complaints and send them to the Senate for trial — where Ms. Duterte risks being permanently barred from office — or dismiss the cases. Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III last week said the Senate will act “with dispatch” once the Articles of Impeachment reaches the chamber. 

AUTHENTICATED, UNEDITED
On Wednesday’s hearing, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said it authenticated and confirmed the videos of Ms. Duterte, threatening the President, were factual and not edited or artificial intelligence-generated.

The bureau’s investigations also confirmed the acts of Ms. Duterte in the Nov. 23, 2024 video constitute grave threats and inciting to sedition, said Yentl D. Malicad, legal officer at the NBI.

The NBI also said their investigation is ongoing, and that it believes an assassin may have already been engaged.

“Our investigation is ongoing… we definitely believe that she spoke to someone and that an assassin was assigned, based on the conversation,” Jeremy C. Lotoc, chief of the NBI’s Anti-Cybercrime Division, said.

The committee also showed a video of Ms. Duterte where she said she called herself the “designated survivor” when she skipped the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA), which is also being investigated by the NBI, according to Director Melvin A. Matibag.

Manila Rep. Joel R. Chua questioned Ms. Duterte’s statements, saying, “Did she know that something bad would happen at that time, or did our Vice-President know something, which is why she did not want to attend the SONA?” he stressed that these are questions that should not be disregarded. 

PROCEED WITH CAUTION
In the same hearing, the panel decided to keep a box containing the income tax returns of Ms. Duterte and husband, Manases, sealed as it proceeds cautiously in tackling impeachment complaints against her.

With 38 votes against and only six in favor to open the box, submitted by the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the panel opted to leave the opening of the “green box” to the Senate, which will sit as the trial court.

Those in favor of opening the box argued it falls within the committee’s mandate to examine tax records as part of the chamber’s constitutional mandate.

“The Constitution is supreme; statutes are subordinate,” Party-list Rep. Leila M. de Lima told the panel.

“When the Constitution commands, all else must give way. We are convened as a House Justice committee, acting not in our ordinary capacity to legislate but in the exercise of one of the most solemn powers entrusted to this entity – the power of impeachment.”

She added the refusal to open and examine the income tax returns in question on the basis of statutory confidentiality under the Philippine tax code is a “misapprehension of the constitutional order.”

While he believes it is within the committee’s power to open the box, Party-list Rep. Jose Manuel I. Diokno question whether it would be necessary, saying that the panel has enough evidence to determine probable cause.

“If we’re talking about probable cause, for me the evidence is already there. That’s enough to make a determination even opening the box,” he told the panel in mixed English and Filipino.

“We have a saying ‘ex abudante cautela,’ with extreme caution, and out of the abundance of caution, I believe that it would be more prudent for us to leave this to the Senate to decide.”

The House in February 2025 impeached Ms. Duterte after one-third of lawmakers voted in favor of an ouster complaint, allowing the chamber to send it directly to the Senate. It was later archived in the Senate after the High Court ruled that the process used by the House was unconstitutional. — Pexcel John Bacon with Charmaine A. Tadalan