ADVERTISEMENT
Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider De Lima confident complaint can hurdle House panel, but would rather have speedy VP Duterte impeachment

De Lima confident complaint can hurdle House panel, but would rather have speedy VP Duterte impeachment

Published Feb 6, 2026 09:02 pm

At A Glance

  • Mamamayang Liberal (ML) Party-list Rep. Leila de Lima expressed supreme confidence on Friday, Feb. 6 that the impeachment complaint she endorsed against Vice President Sara Duterte would pass scrutiny at the committee level, should it get referred there.
Mamamayang Liberal (ML) Party-list Rep. Leila de Lima (left), Vice President Sara Duterte (Facebook)
Mamamayang Liberal (ML) Party-list Rep. Leila de Lima (left), Vice President Sara Duterte (Facebook)


Mamamayang Liberal (ML) Party-list Rep. Leila de Lima expressed supreme confidence on Friday, Feb. 6 that the impeachment complaint she endorsed against Vice President Sara Duterte would pass scrutiny at the committee level, should it get referred there.
"Confident na confident po ako na makakapasa yung impeachment complaint na aking inendorso along with Akbayan Party-list Rep. Perci Cendaña (I am very confident that the impeachment complaint I endorsed, together with Akbayan Party-list Rep. Perci Cendaña, will be approved)," De Lima told House reporters in an interview.
Earlier Friday, it was reported that House Secretary General Cheloy Garafil already transmitted the two filed impeachment raps against Duterte to the office of Speaker Faustino "Bojie" Dy III. 
De Lima and Cendaña sponsored the second complaint against Duterte.
"Kasi po, unang-una, ang dapat talagang batayan ay kung merong recital of facts constituting an impeachable offense (Because, first of all, the true basis should be whether there is a recital of facts constituting an impeachable offense)," said De Lima, a House deputy minority leader.
She said that the second complaint cited four out of the five available grounds for impeachment based on Article XI, Section 2 of the 1987 Constitution: Graft and corruption, bribery, other high crimes or betrayal of public trust, and culpable violation of the Constitution.
"Ang wala lang pong ground is yung treason (The only ground not cited is treason)," said the former senator and Department of Justice (DOJ) secretary.
Her belief in the impeachment complaint's merits notwithstanding, De Lima said she would rather have it directly transmitted to the Senate via the fast-track mode in plenary, instead of have it scrurinized by the Committee on Justice in a series of hearings.
"Yes [mas gusto ko yung fast-track], kasi mas madali na yun (Yes, I would prefer the fast-track mode, because that's easier)," she said.
Initiation of the complaint through this method would involve the signatures of at least one-third of the sitting House members. As of the last plenary session Wednesday, Feb. 4, the magic number is 105.
The next House plenary session is on Monday, Feb. 9.
The Senate is constitutionally mandated to hold the impeachment trial "forthwith" once it receives the articles of impeachment from the House.
As per existing House rules, Speaker Dy has 10 session days to transmit the impeachment complaints to the plenary through the Committee on Rules, which would then have three session days to refer it to the justice panel.
ADVERTISEMENT
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1561_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1562_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1563_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}

{{ articles_filter_1564_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.mb-article-details { position: relative; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview, .mb-article-details .article-body-summary{ font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: "Libre Caslon Text", serif; color: #000; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview iframe , .mb-article-details .article-body-summary iframe{ width: 100%; margin: auto; } .read-more-background { background: linear-gradient(180deg, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0) 13.75%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0.8) 30.79%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000) 72.5%); position: absolute; height: 200px; width: 100%; bottom: 0; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; padding: 0; } .read-more-background a{ color: #000; } .read-more-btn { padding: 17px 45px; font-family: Inter; font-weight: 700; font-size: 18px; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; } .hidden { display: none; }
function initializeAllSwipers() { // Get all hidden inputs with cms_article_id document.querySelectorAll('[id^="cms_article_id_"]').forEach(function (input) { const cmsArticleId = input.value; const articleSelector = '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .body_images'; const swiperElement = document.querySelector(articleSelector); if (swiperElement && !swiperElement.classList.contains('swiper-initialized')) { new Swiper(articleSelector, { loop: true, pagination: false, navigation: { nextEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-next', prevEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-prev', }, }); } }); } setTimeout(initializeAllSwipers, 3000); const intersectionObserver = new IntersectionObserver( (entries) => { entries.forEach((entry) => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { const newUrl = entry.target.getAttribute("data-url"); if (newUrl) { history.pushState(null, null, newUrl); let article = entry.target; // Extract metadata const author = article.querySelector('.author-section').textContent.replace('By', '').trim(); const section = article.querySelector('.section-info ').textContent.replace(' ', ' '); const title = article.querySelector('.article-title h1').textContent; // Parse URL for Chartbeat path format const parsedUrl = new URL(newUrl, window.location.origin); const cleanUrl = parsedUrl.host + parsedUrl.pathname; // Update Chartbeat configuration if (typeof window._sf_async_config !== 'undefined') { window._sf_async_config.path = cleanUrl; window._sf_async_config.sections = section; window._sf_async_config.authors = author; } // Track virtual page view with Chartbeat if (typeof pSUPERFLY !== 'undefined' && typeof pSUPERFLY.virtualPage === 'function') { try { pSUPERFLY.virtualPage({ path: cleanUrl, title: title, sections: section, authors: author }); } catch (error) { console.error('ping error', error); } } // Optional: Update document title if (title && title !== document.title) { document.title = title; } } } }); }, { threshold: 0.1 } ); function showArticleBody(button) { const article = button.closest("article"); const summary = article.querySelector(".article-body-summary"); const body = article.querySelector(".article-body-preview"); const readMoreSection = article.querySelector(".read-more-background"); // Hide summary and read-more section summary.style.display = "none"; readMoreSection.style.display = "none"; // Show the full article body body.classList.remove("hidden"); } document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { let loadCount = 0; // Track how many times articles are loaded const offset = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; // Offset values const currentUrl = window.location.pathname.substring(1); let isLoading = false; // Prevent multiple calls if (!currentUrl) { console.log("Current URL is invalid."); return; } const sentinel = document.getElementById("load-more-sentinel"); if (!sentinel) { console.log("Sentinel element not found."); return; } function isSentinelVisible() { const rect = sentinel.getBoundingClientRect(); return ( rect.top < window.innerHeight && rect.bottom >= 0 ); } function onScroll() { if (isLoading) return; if (isSentinelVisible()) { if (loadCount >= offset.length) { console.log("Maximum load attempts reached."); window.removeEventListener("scroll", onScroll); return; } isLoading = true; const currentOffset = offset[loadCount]; window.loadMoreItems().then(() => { let article = document.querySelector('#widget_1690 > div:nth-last-of-type(2) article'); intersectionObserver.observe(article) loadCount++; }).catch(error => { console.error("Error loading more items:", error); }).finally(() => { isLoading = false; }); } } window.addEventListener("scroll", onScroll); });
Join Our Newsletters

Sign up by email to receive news.

© 2025 Manila Bulletin The Nation's Leading Newspaper. All Rights Reserved.