Vice President Sara Duterte's harshest critics in the House of Representatives gave a collective shrug to her big announcement Wednesday, Feb. 18 that she would vie for the presidency in the 2028 polls.

Deputy Minority Leader Mamamayang Liberal (ML) Party-list Rep. Leila de Lima, Akbayan Party-list, and Deputy Speaker La Union 1st district Rep. Paolo Ortega V either expressed no surprise at the move, or connected the dots to her supposed motivations.

"Hindi na tayo nagulat sa announcement ni VP Sara (We are not surprised by Vice President Sara’s announcement)," said De Lima, who endorsed two of the four verified impeachment complaints filed so far against the Vice President.

"Karapatan naman nyang magdeklara kahit napakaaga. Tulad ng karapatan din ng mga Pilipino na singilin sya sa mga seryosong alegasyon ng katiwalian at paglabag sa batas—na panawagan na po natin noong 2024 pa," she said of Vice President Duterte.

(It is her right to declare, even if very early. But it is also the right of the Filipino people to hold her accountable for serious allegations of corruption and violations of the law — a call we have been making since 2024.)

"Mas magandang harapin at sagutin muna niya ang mga ito bago ang ambisyon na maging Pangulo ng Pilipinas (It would be better for her to first face and answer these issues before pursuing the ambition to become President of the Philippines)," the Liberal Party (LP) chairperson underscored.

Echoing this was Akbayan Party-list, whose nominee, Rep. Perci Cendaña, was the endorser of the first ever impeachment complaint filed against the Vice President in December 2024, during the previous 19th Congress.

He also endorsed one of the four existing complaints in rhe current 20th Congress.

"No one is surprised. Vice President Sara Duterte’s declaration of her 2028 presidential bid is nothing new. Time and again, we have said that seeking the presidency is one of her family’s paths to evade calls for justice and accountability, particularly for the alleged extrajudicial killings and plunder that they are accused of," Akbayan said.

"Every Filipino who meets the legal qualifications has the right to run for the presidency, just as every Filipino has the right to know the full truth behind the serious accusations facing someone presenting herself as the country’s next leader," it added.

The party-list also questioned the timing of the Vice President's announcement, which it said came amid the House of Representatives' imminent initiation of impeachment proceedings against her, as well as the progress in the International Criminal Court (ICC) case against her father, Rodrigo Duterte.

For Ortega, the Vice President's early declaration of a presidential run has given clarity to her prior break-up from the Marcos administration.

Ortega, who endorsed the fourth impeachment complaint filed on Wednesday night, pointed out that the Vice President served nearly two years within the administration as Department of Education (DepEd) secretary without publicly denouncing systemic corruption or incompetence.

“If corruption and inefficiency [in the administration] were the real reasons, those concerns should have been documented while she was inside the Cabinet. Instead, the rupture coincided with fiscal scrutiny and institutional questioning.”

Ortega noted that the turning point in the Marcos-Duterte alliance was the controversy surrounding confidential and intelligence funds allocated to the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and previously to the DepEd during her tenure.

“If one chooses to run for President, that is a democratic right. But the public deserves clarity: the break from the administration was triggered by accountability measures — not by a sudden discovery of corruption or inefficiency,” said the deputy speaker.

“The announcement [of the presidential run] removes any ambiguity. The distancing was not rooted in governance reform. It was part of a larger electoral trajectory,” he stressed.

The alleged misuse of P612.5 million worth of confidential funds has been cited as an impeachable offense in all four impeachment complaints. The big question since the filing of the 19th Congress impeachment raps has been: Where were all these funds spent?

It was Ortega who exposed most of the bogus-sounding names that were listed on acknowledged receipts (ARs) for these confidential funds. These names include Mary Grace Piattos, Pia Piatos-Lim, Renan Piatos, Xiaome Ocho, Jay Kamote, Miggy Mango, Amoy Liu, Fernan Amuy, Joug De Asim, five persons named Dodong, Honeylet Camille Sy, Feonna Biong, Feonna Villegas, Fiona Ranitez, Ellen Magellan, Erwin Q. Ewan, Gary Tanada, and Joel Linangan.

Manila 6th district Rep. Bienvenido "Benny" Abante Jr.--a co-endorser of the fourth complaint--agreed with Ortega's assessment of Vice President Duterte.

“In Philippine politics, alliances shift when strategic calculations shift. Let us not confuse succession maneuvering with moral crusades," he said.

"We respect the Office of the Vice President. But we will not allow the narrative to be reversed. The facts show this was not about corruption or inefficiency. It was about political repositioning," Abante reckoned.