He came. He saw. He was confused.

SAGIP Party-list Rep. Paolo Marcoleta was the picture of a bewildered manWednesday, March 18, during the sufficiency in grounds hearing of the House Committee on Justice on Vice President Sara Duterte's impeachment case.

Lucky for him, committee chairperson, Batangas 2nd district Rep. Gerville "Jinky Bitrics" Luistro served as the patient "tescher" who answered his every query.

It all started when Marcoleta, a member of the minority bloc, questioned the hearing itself, and said that it was foreign to him in his 20 years as a chief-of-staff in the House of Representatives

"I've witnessed the impeachment proceedings against presidents, one ombudsman, one chief justice. Pero wala pa po akong narinig na pag-uusap tungkol sa sufficiency in grounds. Ang naririnig ko lang lagi sufficiency in form and substance. Ngayon ko lang po yata narinig itong bago na rule na ito, sufficiency in grounds," Marcoleta, who first became a congressman in 2025, told the panel.

(But I haven’t heard any discussion yet about sufficiency in grounds. What I always hear is sufficiency in form and substance. I think this is the first time I’ve heard of this new rule, sufficiency in grounds.)

In response to this, Luistro read out section 7 of the rules of impeachment of the House of Representatives, as adopted by the 20th Congress of the Philippines. She said, "After receipt of the pleadings, affidavits and counter-affidavits, and relevant documents provided for in section 6, or the expiration of the time within which they could be filed, the committee shall determine whether the complaint alleges sufficient grounds for impeachment."

"That is for the satisfaction of the honorable Marcoleta," she noted.

"May I know madam chair when the rules were promulgated? I was not furnished a copy," Marcoleta said, to which the panel chief calmly replied, "This has been the rules of the 19th Congress which the 20th Congress adopted."

That the sufficiency in grounds hearing wasn't a novel thing shocked SAGIP solon.

"So it's not new? Hindi po siya bago? (It's not new?)...Kasi bago lang po sa akin yung sufficiency in grounds eh. Hindi ko po naririnig yan sa mga dating proceedings. Yun lang po, salamat po (Because sufficiency in grounds is new to me. I've never heard that in previous proceedings. That is all, thank you)," said the son of Senator Rodante Marcoleta.

Luistro said, "This has been part of the previous rules which were used during the past impeachment processes."

When Marcoleta subsequently asked about the possibility that the committee was "de facto" already holding the actual "hearings stage" on Duterte’s impeachment--which would be unfair to the respondent--Luistro had the secretariat furnish the former a copy of rules.

“Perhaps we need to provide [Rep. Marcoleta] a copy of the rules…Kindly look into the rules of impeachment because everything I am saying is strictly consistent with the provision of the rules,” the panel chairperson said.

She said the impeachment proceedings at the committee level have five stages in all when it comes to tackling verified and endorsed impeachment complaints: the determination of sufficiency in form (1), substance (2), and grounds (3); the hearings proper (4); and the determination of probable cause.

"After that we go to the plenary," Luistro told Marcoleta, who went on to read the piece of paper given to him. "I will go check madam chair, thank you."

But Marcoleta wasn't done yet. Taking everything in he heard so far, he asked Luistro, “Madam, ‘di ba po dapat (isn't it that) we should have determined the sufficiency in ground before we voted for sufficiency in form and substance kasi (since) we already voted for that?”

Lusitro maintained that the panel carried out its actions consistent with the rules, in the established order of procedures.

After all was said and done, the panel declared the two remaining impeachment complaints against Duterte as sufficient in grounds. Marcoleta didn’t object to the motions declaring the complaints as such.

Committee member Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon said in a press conference after the hearing: "At tingin ko (I think) he (Rep. Marcoleta) has to review the rules first before making commentaries to the committee."

The justice panel tackled an impeachment case against President Marcos just weeks before taking up the complaints against Duterte.