Abante: House has the numbers to pursue VP Sara impeachment
Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. confidently stated that the House of Representatives has sufficient votes to endorse the impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Z. Duterte to the Senate, citing "more than enough" support from its 318 members.
In December 2024, four separate impeachment complaints were formally filed against Vice President Sara Duterte, marking the beginning of a significant political confrontation. The first complaint on December 2, 2024, contained 24 articles across four categories: graft and corruption, bribery, betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes, citing her alleged role in extrajudicial killings and her stance on China's sovereignty claims in the West Philippine Sea. A second complaint filed on December 4, 2024, specifically focused on her mishandling of ₱612.5 million in confidential funds from the Office of the Vice President and Department of Education.
Rep. Bienvenido "Benny" Abante Jr., representative of Manila's 6th District and chair of the House Committee on Human Rights, played a key role in endorsing the fourth impeachment complaint against Duterte. Abante sponsored and endorsed this complaint alongside House Deputy Speaker Paolo Ortega V (La Union 1st District), and it was transmitted to Speaker Faustino "Bojie" Dy III. The complaint, filed by attorney Nathaniel Cabrera, accuses Duterte of betrayal of public trust, constitutional violations, graft, corruption, bribery, abuse of authority, failure to disclose assets, and misuse of P612.5 million in confidential funds.
The House of Representatives secured sufficient votes to pursue the impeachment, with 215 lawmakers filing and endorsing a complaint on February 5, 2025. This supermajority was further reinforced when 240 of 310 House members endorsed the formal impeachment articles, which charged Duterte with "culpable violation" of the Constitution, graft and corruption, other "high crimes," and betrayal of public trust. Abante confidently stated that the House had "more than enough" support from its 318 members to endorse the impeachment complaint to the Senate.
However, the impeachment process faced significant legal obstacles. On July 25, 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that the Articles of Impeachment were unconstitutional due to violation of the one-year bar rule outlined in the 1987 Constitution. The House subsequently filed a motion for reconsideration, which the Supreme Court definitively dismissed on January 29, 2026. Despite these constitutional setbacks, Abante continued to advocate for the impeachment, dismissing Duterte's 2028 presidential bid announcement as irrelevant to the proceedings and calling it a "blessing in disguise" for her opponents.
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