Around 200 House of Representatives members are expected to vote in favor of the adoption of the articles of impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte--more than enough to clear the one-third vote threshold.

This was gathered from separate statement Thursday, May 7 from Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon and Tingog Party-list Rep. Jude Acidre.

Ridon is a minority bloc member while Acidre is from the majority bloc.

"From consultations, we are now at around 215 House members supporting the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte," Ridon, a member of the House Committee on Justice, said in a short update Thursday afternoon.

Earlier, Ridon said that reaching the one-third vote requirement--or 106 out of the 318 sitting congressmen--would not be a problem, given the strong case that the justice panel has built up against the Vice President in the course of its hearings. The lady official has never attended any of these hearings at the House of Representatives.

The adoption of the four articles in House plenary will result to Duterte’s second impeachment in as many years.

Meanwhile, Acidre said in a Thursday press briefing that he was confident that at least 200 members or two-thirds of the lower chamber would vote for Duterte’s impeachment once the articles of impeachment are put to a vote on Monday, May 11.

“Based on our monitoring , I think we’re going to hit the majority number, we’re hoping the result would be as much as or even higher than the impeachment last time, we’re hoping that at least 200 or 215, that’s really the goal,” he said.

By "last time", Acidre was referring to the impeachment complaint that the House directly sent to the Senate on Feb. 5, 2025 in hopes of triggering a Senate impeachment trial forthwith.

That particular complaint was signed by 215 House members.

“As of now, I can confidently say it will be above 180 [will vote for impeachment]," Acidre said.

The Tingog solon based his confidence on the clarificatory hearings conducted by the justice committee where "evidence was actually was really presented and examined as to their veracity and determination of probable cause".

He said after the clarificatory hearings, more congressmen appreciated the evidence and were convinced by the need to support the Vice President's impeachment.

“Nung simula hindi masyadong lahat kumbinsido. Pero as we started to go through the evidence, mas klaro at nagiging mas pulido ang ating argumento na dapat na-impeach ang VP," Acidre said.

(At the start, not everyone was fully convinced. But as we began to go through the evidence, our argument that the VP should be impeached became clearer and more refined.)

“Mas dumami ‘yung kumbaga, kung meron pang nagdadalawang isip, by the second and third (hearing), medyo mas marami na, dumami yung mas nakumbinsi dahil sa ebidensya,” he said.

(More people, if there were still those who had doubts, by the second and third hearing, there were more who became convinced because of the evidence.)

Acidre even claimed that people who watched the justice committee proceedings on live television and social media were enlightened by the evidence presented to support the impeachment complaints against the lady official.

“I know for the last couple of weeks, even months, people have been actually studying the progress and the details of the impeachment complaints,” he noted.

House Senior Deputy Majority Leader Iloilo 3rd district Rep. Lorenz Defensor agreed with Acidre in that the evidence on the impeachment complaint resonated with the public.

“Nararamdaman namin (We feel it happening). Personally, I can see lalo na sa reaction ng mga tao. One, matatag talaga ang ebidensya (I can see it especially in the reaction of the people. First, the evidence is truly strong). When they say that this is a fishing expedition, that’s wrong, because the net is already full,” he said.

Defensor, a lawyer, said the evidence gathered by the House since last year could be directly tied to Duterte.

“Since last year, ang ebidensya (the evidence) can be directly correlated to the respondent. You can’t deny a movie that was seen by every Filipino. And it shows the character of a high official,” he said, referring to Duterte’s controversial media briefing in November 2024 wherein she threatened to assassinate President Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former House Speaker Leyte 1st district Rep. Martin Romualdez.

The House leader also said Duterte’s failure to personally appear before the justice panel or send her lawyers to answer the allegations may have contributed to the decline in her ratings and the rise in public support for the impeachment proceedings.