FORMER Justice secretary and Mamamayang Liberal Party-list Rep. Leila de Lima on Monday asserted that there is enough “smoking gun” evidence for the House of Representatives to again impeach Vice President Sara Duterte to pave the way for her Senate impeachment trial.
De Lima told her colleagues that “most of the factual allegations and the annexes in Saballa et al. were the same as those contained in the articles of impeachment that were sent to the Senate in February 2025.”
She was referring to the third complaint filed by several petitioners led by Fr. Joel Saballa and Fr. Joselito Sarabia, whom she has endorsed.
Last year’s Articles of Impeachment against VP Duterte were endorsed by 215 House members, more than the threshold of one-third of the chamber’s membership.
“I reiterate, this House has impeached Vice President Sara Duterte before. The records are clear. This House already determined at least once that the allegations against her were serious enough to trigger the constitutional process,” De Lima said.
She said it is absurd to belittle the accusations contained in the Saballa et al petition and other complaints “precisely because these are exactly, the same accusations and evidence that caused the vice president’s impeachment last year.”
“Nothing changed. The grounds, the facts and the evidence remained valid. This should still be enough to impeach her this time,” she said.
She noted that the Supreme Court has declared in junking last year’s impeachment complaint against VP Duterte that it did not absolve the nation’s second-highest-ranking official of any of the impeachment charges.
“Nasabi na rin po ito ng ating Madam Chair, that the Vice President was not absolved. In the High Tribunal’s own words, quote, at the House’s discretion, the grounds raised in the articles of impeachment may again be raised based on any evidence that may have been discovered, if any, end of quote,” the former justice secretary said.
She disagreed with some assertions that there is no strong evidence against the vice president.
“I beg to disagree. The video containing the Vice President’s threat to kill the President, the First Lady and the then-House Speaker, as well as the media interview where she affirmed it is a smoking gun. The numerous documents evidencing payments or the debts with fictitious names are smoking guns,” she said.
She was referring to millions in disbursements of confidential and intelligence funds to persons who could not be located and who had no records in the Philippine Statistics Authority database.
“Saballa et al.’s complaint is replete with much other documentary evidence which are also smoking guns. And even assuming…that the evidence in the articles is not or no longer a smoking gun, we have it this time. We will produce them in the form of compelling testimonies and newly discovered material evidence, one more time with feelings as the lyrics of a song go,” De Lima said.
She said if the House of Representatives last year found enough proof to impeach the vice president and send the impeachment charges to the Senate for trial, “then consistency and principled conviction demand that we uphold what this House had firmly decided on before.”
“Hindi maaaring mag-iba ang ating pasya kung hindi naman nagbago ang ebidensya. Our oath is to the Constitution…Let the Constitution prevail,” she said.
“And, finally, we pray that the lane we’re treading here be paved with the same moral lines of truth and accountability that our people drew at EDSA 40 years ago…For crossing those moral lines, for desecrating those constitutional boundaries, let us impeach Vice President Sara Zimmerman Duterte,” she urged her colleagues.
