Lower House impeaches Vice President Duterte

The House of Representatives has impeached the vice president for the second time with a vote of 257, approving the justice panel’s committee report and articles of impeachment.

Vice President Sara Duterte during a courtesy call of Veterans Kap of Manila City District 6 last Monday, May 4, at her office in Mandaluyong City. Photo from Inday Sara Duterte’s Facebook page.

Manuel Mogato | May 12, 2026

MANILA — The House of Representatives has impeached the vice president for the second time with a vote of 257, approving the justice panel’s committee report and articles of impeachment.

The lower house found probable cause to send Vice President Sara Duterte to trial in the Senate for allegations of culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust, bribery, and other high crimes.

Only 25 congressmen opposed the impeachment of the vice president and nine others abstained. Under the 1987 Constitution, only one-third of the members of the House of Representatives is needed to impeach the vice president.

Last year, Congress also voted to impeach Duterte with 215 yes votes, but the Supreme Court declared the impeachment void after the High Tribunal found it unconstitutional. (Also read: Vice President runs to the Supreme Court to stop impeachment)

Earlier, the House justice committee said Duterte had 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.

House justice committee chairperson and Batangas 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 Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN).

Luistro then reiterated that the Articles of Impeachment are anchored on evidence, not gossip.

Those lawmakers who voted no to the Vice President’s impeachment cited the will of their constituents. (Also read: Vice President Sara Duterte skips House impeachment hearing)

At the upper house of Congress, the minority bloc staged a successful coup to remove Senate President Vicente Sotto III, after a senator who is in hiding for months suddenly showed up to vote for a leadership change.

There is uncertainty in the Senate trial of the vice president after the leadership change as Duterte’s allies dominate the upper chamber.

Senator Ronald dela Rosa showed up at the Senate plenary session and was given protective custody after law enforcement agents, armed with an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, tried to arrest the senator.