More petitions hit SC as lawyers seek to block Duterte impeachment

Three lawyers have joined the petition before the Supreme Court (SC) to halt the ongoing impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte.

In a 34-page petition dated 20 April, attorneys Hue Jyro U. Go, Micah Lorelle P. De Guzman, and Jake O. Leoncini, seeks an immediate Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to stop the House Committee on Justice from further acting on the third and fourth impeachment complaints against the Vice President.

"Instead of confining themselves to their constitutionally mandated role of evaluating the impeachment complaints as filed, the Committee relaxed governing standards, tolerated fatal defects, and proceeded on the erroneous premise that deficiencies in the pleadings may be cured through subsequent evidentiary search," the petition states.

The legal challenge argues that the current legislative inquiry has overstepped its constitutional bounds by attempting to "build" a case rather than simply evaluating the merits of the complaints as filed.

They claimed that the move violates the Constitution and the Vice President's right to due process.

"The provisions of Article XI, Section 3 of the Constitution, granting the House of Representatives the exclusive power to 'initiate all cases of impeachment,' is not a license to violate its other provisions, especially those found in Article III, the Bill of Rights," the prefatory statement of the petition reads.

In July 2025, the SC previously nullified two impeachment complaints, ruling they violated the one-year prohibition against initiating new proceedings against the same official.

The new impeachment complaints, filed in February 2026, claims that Duterte committed betrayal of public trust by her alleged misuse of over P612 million in confidential funds across the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education, as well as alleged threats against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his family.

However, the petitioners contend that the committee is using the proceedings to bypass constitutional protections, by issuing broad subpoenas for bank records and other documents not originally supported by evidence in the complaints.

They argued that the House is now attempting to "cure" fatal defects in these new pleadings through an unauthorized evidentiary search, and asked the High Court to declare the proceedings null and void.

As taxpayers, they claim to have a direct interest in preventing the "unnecessary public expenditure" of funds on a process they claim is being conducted in a "vague and overbroad" manner.

The Vice President has since filed a verified answer ad cautelam, maintaining that the complaints fail to state necessary facts to support the allegations.

Meanwhile, the House Committee on Justice indicated it expects to reach a decision on the impeachment case by 29 April.