For the second time, and now with an overwhelming majority, the House of Representatives voted on Monday to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte on accusations of misuse of confidential funds, unexplained wealth, and threats to have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. killed.
Duterte is the first Filipino official to be impeached twice. The first time was in 2025, with 215 House votes.
A total of 257 of 290 House members present voted in favor of her impeachment, well above the one-third vote (or 105) needed. Twenty-five voted no and nine abstained.
But whether her impeachment case will immediately lead to trial has again become uncertain, with her allies in the Senate wresting control of the chamber even before the House voted to impeach her. Alan Peter Cayetano, who was her father Rodrigo Duterte’s vice presidential running mate in the 2016 elections, is now the Senate president in place of Vicente Sotto III.
The Vice President was not tried by the Senate impeachment court in 2025 because the chamber under then Senate President Francis Escudero voted 18-5 to remand her case to the House. The Supreme Court eventually ruled against it on the technicality that it violated the one-year bar.
Her lawyers said they were aware of the House impeachment vote. “The burden now rests on the accusers to substantiate their claims in accordance with the Constitution, the law, and rules on evidence,” they said in a statement.
“While questions of constitutional significance remain pending before the Supreme Court, we are fully prepared to defend the Vice President before the Senate sitting as an Impeachment Court, where it is incumbent upon the Prosecution to discharge the burden of proof,” they added.
The Vice President is currently in the Netherlands visiting her father, who is awaiting trial at the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity.
‘Allow the evidence to prevail’
The House took up Resolution No. 989, which contains the justice committee’s report and the articles of impeachment against Duterte, shortly after the session started at 3 p.m. with Senior Deputy Speaker Antonio Hernandez presiding.
Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro, chair of the justice committee, presented the committee report for floor debate and voting, with the House members already aware that Cayetano had replaced Sotto as Senate president after gaining the vote of 13 other senators.
In her sponsorship speech delivered in English and Filipino, Luistro pleaded for the impeachment process to continue.
“Let us give the Senate the chance to listen to the whole truth…Let us allow the evidence to prevail. Let’s allow the process to prevail. Let’s allow the Constitution to prevail. And at the end, let’s allow the nation to prevail,” she said.
Luistro defended the justice committee’s finding of probable cause to impeach Duterte, citing the exhaustive clarificatory hearings it conducted. The committee held three hearings in which witnesses testified and presented documents. One of the major witnesses was Ramil Madriaga, who claimed to have delivered millions of pesos of Duterte’s confidential funds to certain people on her orders. The committee also found discrepancies in Duterte’s statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth and in her bank transactions amounting to billions of pesos.
‘The numbers are on the records’
On the sufficiency of votes to transmit Duterte’s impeachment case to the Senate, Luistro acknowledged that the House had the numbers.
“But the numbers I am referring to are not only because they are votes. The numbers are on the records. ₱6.7 billion,” she said, referring to the bank transactions that the Vice President made from 2016 to 2022, as reported by the Anti-Money Laundering Council.
“This is the number that needs to be explained to the Filipino people. This is the number that should not be forgotten,” she added.
Sagip Rep. Paolo Marcoleta questioned Luistro over the justice committee’s holding of the impeachment proceedings while Congress was not in session. As she had done during the committee hearings, Luistro explained that the panel is empowered to do so because impeachment is not an ordinary legislative proceeding that requires Congress to be in session.
Others, including Davao Rep. Isidro Ungab, Quezon City Rep. Jesus Suntay, and Batangas Rep. Leandro Leviste, also rose to interpellate Luistro.
In the end, the voting proceeded.
“With 257 members voting in the affirmative, 25 against, and nine abstentions, House Resolution No. 989, together with the findings, conclusions, and recommendations contained in Committee Report No. 261, is hereby adopted,” Hernandez announced after the nominal voting.
Voting yes to impeach Duterte, Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante said: “This is no longer about politics. This is about conscience, duty, and the future of our nation.”
Abante also said the people deserve “a fair, impartial trial that is rooted in the rule of law.” He called on the people to pray for the senator-judges, that they may be guided by conscience and wisdom, not by political pressure.
Who voted no
Among the 25 who voted against the Vice President’s impeachment were her brother, Davao Rep. Paolo Duterte, and her nephews, Davao Rep. Omar Vincent Duterte and PPP Rep. Harold Duterte.
The others were Ma. Vanessa Aumentado (Bohol), Shirlyn Bañas-Nograles (General Santos), Francisco Barzaga (Cavite), Alfelito Bascug (Agusan del Sur), Dale Corvera (Agusan del Norte), Nelson Dayanghirang (Davao Oriental), Rachel Marguerite Del Mar (Cebu City), Karen Hope Garcia (Cebu), Ramil Hernandez (Laguna), Isidro Lumayag (South Cotabato), Rolando Macasaet (SSS-GSIS Pensyonado), Roger Mercado (Southern Leyte), Robert Nazal (BH), Richelle Singson (Ako Ilocano), Sun Judal Shimura (Cebu), Kristine Tutor (Bohol), Girlie Veloso (Malasakit@Bayanihan), Julius Cesar Vergara (Nueva Ecija), Leviste, Ungab, Marcoleta and Suntay.
In explaining his no vote, Barzaga said it was Duterte who first exposed the flood control corruption in the national budget in 2025, and implicated former House speaker Martin Romualdez and former Ako Bicol Rep. Zaldy Co.
“I speak on behalf of my hopes for a bright future for our nation, that is free from corruption and against the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte, the only presidential candidate who is capable of creating the future,” Barzaga said.
Among the nine who abstained were Palawan Rep. Jose Alvarez, Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice and Bukidnon Rep. Audrey Kay Zubiri, the wife of Sen. Miguel Zubiri, who in turn abstained during the Monday vote for the new Senate president.
The House adjourned after certain lawmakers explained their votes. Majority Leader Lorenz Defensor directed House Secretary General Cheloy Garafil to transmit the articles of impeachment against Duterte to the Senate.
It is expected that the House will soon nominate the lawmakers who will make up the prosecution team in the Senate impeachment court. CS
