House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro announced on January 2 that the Makabayan Bloc is planning to convene groups and individuals and lawmakers who filed and endorsed impeachment complaints against against Vice President Sara Duterte. The lawmakers will lead the hearing on the three impeachment complaints filed as of December 2024 by various groups and sectors.

“We are planning to call a meeting to unite efforts to push the Marcos administration and House leadership to pursue the impeachment,” Rep. Castro said. The representative belong to the three Makabayan Bloc lawmakers in congress who endorsed the second complaint filed by 74 organizations led by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) on December 4, 2024.

The complaint is based on “betrayal of public trust,” which is stands over three issues: 1) abuse, misuse, and misappropriation of ₱612.5 million confidential funds; 2) systematic cover-up of the crime through fabricated reports, receipts, and documents submitted to the Commission on Audit (COA); and 3) deliberate obstruction of congressional investigations and inquiries.

Most of the details of this case came to light during the hearings conducted by the Congressional Committee on Good Governance and Accountability which scrutinized Sara Duterte’s spending of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and Department of Education (DepEd) funds. The anomalous use of confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) by the two offices became central to the hearings.

The third group that filed an impeachment complaint has already expressed its willingness to meet with Rep. Castro. According to Atty. Amando Virgil Ligutan, the group’s representative, “since we are bound by a common cause, why not…we are open to dialogue with them.”

The third complaint was filed on December 19, 2024, by religious leaders, lawyers, and other non-government organizations, and endorsed by Rep. Gabriel Bordado and AAMBIS-OWA Party-list Rep. Lex Anthony Colada. The first complaint was filed by 16 representatives from various organizations and endorsed by the party-list group Akbayan.

Additionally, the House of Representatives general secretary revealed that there are lawmakers planning to file a fourth complaint. Congress is scheduled to resume its session on January 14, when this complaint is likely to be submitted.

Under the constitution, the general secretary must submit the impeachment complaint to the office of the House Speaker within 10 session days after receiving it, and it should be included in the “Order of Business.” There will be three session days for this to be sent to the House Committee on Justice which will determine if the complaint has sufficient grounds to proceed, followed by 60 session days for the committee to submit the complaint to the plenary, and then 10 session days for the House of Representatives to calendar the resolution for this.

It can be recalled that Makabayan previously launched a signature drive aiming to gather 1/3 of the votes or 106 members of the House of Representatives to expedite the impeachment process. Rep. Castro shared that they have already collected some signatures for the second complaint.

The Makabayan Coalition and Bayan are also preparing protest actions to push for the implementation of the impeachment complaints against Duterte.