Vice President Sara Duterte only has herself and her actions to blame for the swift progress of her impeachment case at the House of Representatives.

This can be gleaned from the remarks of Committee on Justice Chairperson, Batangas 2nd district Rep. Gerville 'Jinky Bitrics" Luistro on Thursday, March 19, a day after the panel declared the two remaining impeachment complaints against Duterte as "sufficient in grounds".

Earlier this week, Duterte’s camp submitted to the justice panel the respondent's Consolidated Verified Answer Ad Cautelam, which was her written response to the allegations listed on the two complaints.

Despite being 15 pages long, the consolidated answer has been described as a "non-answer" for supposedly failing to address the allegations directly, if at all.

The Vice President's submission was tackled by justice committee members during Wednesday's hearing on sufficiency in grounds on the Father Joel Saballa et al and Nathaniel Cabrera complaints.

"Wala naman sinabing defense. Hindi naman ni-respond ‘yung allegations of offenses. So to them (committee members), standing ‘yung allegations of complaint. Kasi hindi questioned, hindi ni-rebut, hindi sinagot,” Luistro said in an online interview.

(There was no defense presented. The allegations of offenses were not responded to. So for them, the allegations in the complaint stand, because they were not questioned, not rebutted, not answered.)

This non-answer prompted the impeachment complainants to waive their right to reply, which in turn hastened the panel proceedings. Wednesday's hearing ended with the declaration of the Saballa et al and Cabrera complaints' as sufficient in grounds.

"Ang laman ng answer (The content of the answer) is merely an allegation of violation of due process and failure to state ultimate facts,” Luistro added regarding Duterte's consolidated answer.

Luistro said that Duterte's own allegations of due process violations "did not address directly the allegations in the [impeachment] complaint". She said most panel members likened the submission to a "motion to dismiss",which was a procedural no-no.

She says these arguments fall outside the jurisdiction of the justice committee and are matters that should instead be raised before the Supreme Court (SC).

The panel will begin the "hearings proper" stage of the impeachment proceedings on March 25. After these series of hearings, the solons will determine whether or not there is probable cause to impeach the Vice President.

Luistro called the process crucial for Duterte because it gives her camp the chance to answer the charges before the case reaches the House plenary, and possibly the Senate impeachment court.

“If their position is not to participate, then that is tantamount to saying na mata-transmit talaga ito sa Senate because unrebutted ang evidence ng complainant,” Luistro said.

(If their position is not to participate, then that is tantamount to saying this will indeed be transmitted to the Senate because the complainant’s evidence remains unrebutted.)

“That’s why it’s important for the Vice President to avail of this opportunity in the hearing proper to present her evidence. Otherwise, the evidence of the complainant will appear to be unrebutted, hindi na questioned, hindi na countered, ‘di ba? (unquestioned, and uncountered, right?)” she said.

“What is important, we are giving her the opportunity. Whether she attends or not, it will be her choice. It will be her decision. Ang importante for the justice committee (What's important for the justice committee), we afforded her the right to due process.“