The House of Representatives--teeming with administration allies--put the final nail in the coffin of President Marcos' impeachment complaints during plenary session Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 10.

This, after the majority bloc congressmen sitting in plenary overwhelmingly voted to adopt the Committee on Justice's Committee Report No.111, which recommended the dismissal of the two impeachment complaints filed this year against Marcos for insufficiency in substance.

The nominal voting result was 284-8-4 (yes-no-abstain), as bared by the presiding officer, Deputy Speaker Iloilo 1st district Rep. Janette Garin.

"House Resolution (HR) No.746, as well as the findings, conclusions, and recommendations contained in Committee Report No.111 are hereby adopted. The impeachment complaints filed against the President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. are hereby dismissed," Garin said.

The impeachment proceedings against Marcos were initiated only last Jan. 26. Then, on Feb. 4, the justice panel chaired by Batangas 2nd district Rep. Gerville "Jinky Bitrics" Luistro deemed the two complaints as insufficient in substance after a series of public hearings.

The 300-plus strong House formally ended the impeachment case against the Chief Executive even as it prepares to tackle the same type of proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte.

The number of affirmative votes--284--could even be interpreted as the pro-Marcos majority bloc's flexing of its muscle, as if to show everyone that it could easy attain the one-third plenary requirement to send an impeachment complaint directly to the Senate and not go through committee deliberations.

As of Tueaday, three verified and endorsed impeachment complaints against Duterte have already been transmitted to the office of Speaker Faustino "Bojie" Dy III.

Luistro, in her sponsorship of the committee report, said, “Complaints that are fundamentally insufficient in substance must be dismissed, not indulged for the sake of political theater."

She identified the raps in question as the De Jesus complaint, filed by lawyer Andre de Jesus and endorsed by Pusong Pinoy Party-list Rep. Jernie Jett V. Nisay; and the Maza et al. complaint, filed by Liza Largoza-Maza, Teodoro Casiño, Renato Reyes Jr., Neri Colmenares, and other complainants, and endorsed by ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio, Gabriela Party-list Rep. Sarah Elago, and Kabataan Party-list Rep. Renee Louise Co.

"In this hall, the interest of the Filipino people must always come first. To do otherwise is to degrade impeachment from a constitutional safeguard into a weapon of harassment.

While our rules state that substance is met by a recital of facts and jurisdictional requirements, huwag nating kalimutan (let's not forget): Impeachment is a sui generi s proceeding. It is a class of its own," Luistro explained.

In seeking the adoption of the committee report, the justice panel chief said: "I urge my colleagues to defend the integrity of this institution and the sanctity of the impeachment process. The 1987 Constitution has lodged this extraordinary power in us—the duly elected representatives of the Filipino people."

"Tungkulin nating timbangin kung ang mga akusasyong ito ay may katotohanan o sadyang mapanira lamang. Tayo ang boses ng bawat Pilipino rito sa plenaryo (It is our duty to weigh whether these accusations have truth to them or are merely meant to destroy. We are the voice of every Filipino here in the plenary)," she added.

Before the nominal vote, representatives from major political groups in the chamber--the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD), National Unity Party (NUP), Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC), Nacionalista Party (NP), Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP), and Party-list Coalition Foundation, Incorporated (PCFI) gave separate manifestations on why the President’s complaints must be dismissed.

Not all House members felt it was worth participating in plenary Tuesday, however.

Four of them were the so-called Davao group. This is composed of Davao City 1st district Rep. Paolo Duterte, brother of Vice President Duterte; his son, Davao City 2nd district Rep. Omar Duterte; and his cousin, PPP Party-list Rep. Harold Duterte. Davao City 3rd district Rep. Isidro Ungab rounded up the quartet.

"We, the undersigned, have chosen not to participate in, [or] to cast a vote on, the impeachment of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. We do so not out of indifference, but out of conviction," they said in a joint statement while the session was ongoing.

"We cannot in good conscience lend our names, our voices, and our mandate to a process that no longer reflects a genuine and honest pursuit of truth and accountability. To take part under these circumstances would be to betray the very principles that brought us to public service," they said.

For them, outcome of the impeachment proceedings against Marcos "appears predetermined long before any vote is taken".

"We refuse to be used as props in a production that pretends to seek justice while ensuring that those who must answer are never truly held to account. We remain committed to real accountability, to institutions that function with integrity, and to a justice system where truth is neither silenced nor staged, but genuinely heard," the group added.