THE House Committee on Justice on Monday declared the third and fourth impeachment complaints filed against Vice President Sara Duterte to be sufficient in form, setting the stage for a debate on their sufficiency in substance on March 3. The third impeachment complaint, endorsed by Mamamayang Liberal Rep. Leila de Lima, was filed on Feb. 9, 2026. The complainants, which included priests and lawyers, alleged, among others, that Duterte committed culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayed public trust in connection with confidential funds allocated to the Office of the Vice President (OVP) for 2022 and 2023 and confidential funds allocated for 2023 to the Department of Education (DepEd), which Duterte led as secretary before she resigned in 2024 from that post. At the start of the panel’s review of the impeachment complaints, Batangas 2nd District Rep. Gerville Luistro on Monday corrected claims that the Supreme Court already dismissed the accusations filed earlier this year against the vice president. “The Supreme Court did not rule on the merits of the allegations. It did not conduct a trial. [...] It did not absolve anyone of wrongdoing,” Luistro, chairman of the House Committee on Justice, said. “The court itself clarified that its ruling was limited to the constitutional one-year bar rule. It emphasized that it did not absolve the vice president from any of the charges. Those are not my words. Those are the Supreme Court’s own clarifications. To suggest, therefore, that the allegations have already been resolved on the merits is legally incorrect,” she said. The fourth complaint was filed on Feb. 18, 2026 by lawyer Nathaniel Cabrera and was endorsed by Manila 6th District Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr., chairman of the House Committee on Human Rights, and Deputy Speaker and La Union 1st District Rep. Francisco Paolo Ortega V. Cabrera said Article II of the complaint alleged that Duterte “betrayed the public trust and committed acts of graft and corruption by grossly abusing discretionary authority over confidential funds appropriated to the” OVP and DepEd. The complainant also alleged culpable violation of the Constitution and other high crimes. Earlier in the day, the panel set aside the first of four impeachment complaints filed earlier this year against Duterte, saying it violated the constitutional ban on more than one complaint filed against an official within a year. The Makabayan bloc — composed of ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio, Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Sarah Elago, and Kabataan Rep. Renee Co — endorsed the complaint, which was filed on Feb. 2, 2026, by former lawmakers France Castro and Arlene Brosas, who alleged betrayal of public trust in connection with confidential funds. That was less than a year from the day the House impeached Duterte for the misuse of confidential funds. But the Supreme Court declared the articles of impeachment to be in violation of the one-year ban. Meanwhile, concerned citizens who had filed the second impeachment complaint against the vice president withdrew it. Akbayan Rep. Percival Cendaña and de Lima, who endorsed the complaint, told the committee they would withdraw it “in the interest of procedural expediency and to obviate any needless delay.” New impeachment bid The daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, Sara Duterte recently announced her candidacy for the 2028 presidential election. She was impeached by the country’s House of Representatives last year only to see the Supreme Court toss the case out over procedural issues. The revived impeachment bid leans heavily on allegations that the vice president misused public funds while in office. Duterte also stands accused of making a death threat against her former ally and current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., with whom she is engaged in an explosive political feud. Under the Constitution, an impeachment triggers a Senate trial. A guilty verdict would result in Duterte being barred from politics and sidelined from the 2028 presidential race. The latest impeachment bid faces a changed environment with the vice president ahead in recent polls, analysts said. “The political context will be very different, especially now that Sara declared her candidacy,” University of the Philippines political science professor Jean Franco said. “It’s definitely going to weigh on the minds of the members of the House of Representatives,” Franco said, adding that a vote for impeachment would effectively see a lawmaker’s career “marked for death.” Anthony Lawrence Borja, an associate professor of political science at De La Salle University agreed, saying: “It is ultimately a question of whether the patronage of the current administration outweighs their fear of Duterte’s condemnation.” The same committee hearing the case against Duterte last month tossed out a pair of impeachment complaints against Marcos, ruling that allegations of corruption over a scandal involving bogus flood control projects lacked substance. Michael Wesley Poa, spokesman for Duterte’s defense team, said they were closely monitoring deliberations and trusted “the same standards” used in the Marcos hearing would be applied.