(UPDATE) THE House Committee on Justice on Thursday served a notice directing Vice President Sara Duterte to answer the two impeachment complaints against her that it found sufficient in form and substance. The notice, dated March 4, and addressed to the Office of the Vice President (OVP), ordered her to file her answer within 10 calendar days from receipt of the notice. “Failure on your part to file the Verified Answer within the period herein provided shall be deemed a waiver of your right to file the same, and you shall be considered to have interposed a general denial to the allegations contained in the impeachment complaints,” it read. Lawyer Michael Poa, speaking for Duterte’s defense team, acknowledged receipt of the notice served. “At this point, we see no need to issue any further comment,” Poa said. The committee has yet to determine whether there is sufficient ground to support the complaints. “If the decision of the Justice Committee is in the affirmative, that’s the only time that we will be proceeding to the hearing proper,” said Batangas 2nd District Rep. Gerville Luistro, the chairman of the committee, in a press conference earlier this week. Four impeachment complaints were filed last month against Duterte. The House committee set the first one filed aside, finding that it violated the rule against initiating impeachment proceedings against the same official more than once within a one-year period. The second one was withdrawn by the 17 people who filed it. The third impeachment complaint filed by priests and others alleged, among others, that Duterte committed culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayed public trust in connection with confidential funds allocated to the 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. The fourth complaint, filed by lawyer Nathaniel Cabrera, said 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.