After weeks of grueling deliberations, the House Committee on Justice is expected to vote whether or not there is probable cause in the two active impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte on Wednesday, April 29.

Wednesday's justice panel hearing--expected to be the last regarding the 2026 impeachment case against the Vice President--will decide whether or not the case will be endorsed to the House plenary.

From there, the 300-plus strong House can impeach the lady official for the second time in as many years, and then send the articles of impeachment to the Senate for a formal impeachment trial.

The two active impeachment complaints against Duterte--initiated by the House last Feb. 23--are the Saballa et al complaint and the Cabreba complaint.

The big difference this 2026 is that the Senate under Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto III is willing and ready to hold Duterte’s trial forthwith. The Vice President never underwent trial in the upper chamber.

The other new detail in this year's impeachment saga is Duterte's earlier declaration of her presidential aspiration in 2028.

Suffice it to say that a lot is riding on the Committee on Justice's proceedings, which will be presided over by Batangas 2nd Rep. Gerville “Jinky Bitrics” Luistro. It will have been the fourth "probable cause" hearing of the panel, which earlier declared the active impeachment raps as both sufficient in form and in substance.

Wednesday's hearing will focus on the respondent's 2024 public death threats against President Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and then-House Speaker Martin Romualdez.

Wednesday’s hearing is seen as pivotal, as it focuses on one of the most direct and personal allegations against a sitting Vice President, grounded in her own statements.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), led by Director Melvin Matibag, has been invited to present findings from its probe into the alleged assassination threat.

The allegation stems from Duterte’s November 2024 press conference, where she launched an expletive-laden tirade and said she had arranged for someone to kill the President, the First Lady, and the Speaker if anything happened to her.

Manila 6th district Rep. Bienvenido “Benny” Abante Jr., a co-endorser of the Cabrera complaint, earlier said the alleged threat could constitute a “high crime". He stressed that such a statement against the sitting President was “not a joke and not something that can be taken lightly".

The other endorser of particular complaint, Deputy Speaker La Union 1st district Rep. Paolo Ortega V also underscored the gravity of Duterte's remark. He says the issue goes beyond politics and raises questions about fitness for public office.

Members of the panel have repeatedly described the allegation as one with “resibo" or proof, pointing to Duterte’s direct participation through her own publicly delivered statements.

Luistro has repeatedly emphasized that the panel’s task is to determine probable cause based on evidence, not political noise, likening the process to a preliminary investigation.

“This is not about conclusions. This is about whether there is enough evidence to proceed,” she said in earlier hearings.

The NBI’s testimony is expected to shed light on whether Duterte’s remarks constitute a credible and actionable threat under Philippine law. The bureau had earlier initiated steps to look into the statement.

Duterte has since downplayed her remarks, describing them as conditional and tied to concerns for her own safety.