Attorney Rhobert Maestre, Intergrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Board Member of Misamis Oriental Chapter, identified two reasons why the House of Representatives did not immediately act on the “nominal voting” for the committee report of the House Committee on Justice, which found sufficient grounds to pursue an impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte.
According to Maestre, the first reason was the lack of quorum, and the second was that not all members had yet received copies of the committee report prepared by Congresswoman Gerville Luistro.
Because of this, the plenary debate is expected to take place next week, where lawmakers will publicly state their positions on whether to support or oppose the impeachment.
Maestre believes that only a few more votes are needed for Luistro’s committee to reach the required one-third, or 106 votes, for the articles of impeachment to advance to the Senate.
If the Vice President is impeached again by the House, it would mark a historic “back-to-back” impeachment against her in the chamber.
