Rowegie Abanto

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Batangas Second District Rep. Gerville Luistro. Alfred Frias, PNA/File and Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News

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President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Batangas Second District Rep. Gerville Luistro. 

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1770273432262composites 2 (1) (3).jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Batangas Second District Rep. Gerville Luistro. <em>Alfred Frias, PNA/File and Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News</em><br id="isPasted"/></span></span></span></div><p>MANILA — The chairperson of the House Committee on Justice insisted Thursday that panel members had voted &quot;independently&quot; on the impeachment complaints against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.</p><p>The committee on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly that the two complaints <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/2/4/house-panel-says-marcos-impeachment-complaints-insufficient-in-substance-1507">lacked sufficient substance</a> to move forward.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/2/4/palace-marcos-jr-wants-to-move-forward-from-averted-impeachment-threat-1721">Palace: Marcos Jr. wants to &#x27;move forward&#x27; from averted impeachment threat</a></div><p>ACT Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio, one of the endorsers of a complaint, claimed Thursday in an interview on ANC that there were &quot;marching orders&quot; to majority lawmakers to shield the president from possible impeachment, adding this resulted in the case being &quot;prematurely killed.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;IMPARTIALLY AND INDEPENDENTLY&#x27;</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>But Batangas Second District Rep. Gerville Luistro, the House justice panel chair, stressed that committee members had been impartial in their decision. </p><p>&quot;I maintain my position that they indeed voted impartially and independently and that is for the best interest of the Filipino people,&quot; she told ANC&#x27;s &quot;Dateline Philippines.&quot;</p><p>Luistro said that the votes made by the justice panel members were &quot;in accordance&quot; with the existing impeachment rules of the House of Representatives and the Constitution.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/2/4/-not-railroaded-congressmen-defend-impeachment-proceedings-vs-marcos-1942">‘Not railroaded’: Congressmen defend impeachment proceedings vs. Marcos</a></div><p>&quot;The rules and the constitution say if there&#x27;s a recital of facts constituting of an offense, determinative of the jurisdiction of the justice committee, then it is sufficient in substance,&quot; she said.</p><p>&quot;However, what happens is they failed on parameter of sufficiency in substance, at least as far as the arguments of the justice members are concerned.&quot;</p><p>She added that it was important to follow the rules to prevent &quot;sham&quot; complaints from advancing. </p><p>There has been concern that bogus or weak complaints could be filed before the House of Representatives to trigger the constitutional prohibition that bars the filing of more than one impeachment complaint against an official in a year.</p><p>One of the two complaints, endorsed by the Makabayan bloc of left-wing parties, accused Marcos of packing the national budget with projects aimed at redirecting funds to his allies.</p><p>Another focused on allegations that the arrest of ex-president Rodrigo Duterte and his transfer to the International Criminal Court constituted kidnapping.</p><p>Marcos and his office have repeatedly said that the president did not commit any wrongdoing that could be used to impeach him. </p><p>Luistro on Tuesday said that an impeachment complaint has sufficiency in substance when it alleges &quot;ultimate facts, not mere conclusions.&quot;</p><p>The charter &quot;strictly enumerates&quot; betrayal of public trust, culpable violation of the constitution, treason, bribery, graft and corruption, and other high crimes as impeachable offenses, she noted.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>PLENARY DECISION</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>While the House panel&#x27;s Wednesday decision effectively dismissed the two Marcos impeachment complaints, it could still be reversed by at least a third of House members in a plenary vote.</p><p>&quot;It ain&#x27;t over &#x27;til it&#x27;s over,&quot; Tinio said of the Marcos impeachment cases, but quickly admitted that any move to overturn the panel&#x27;s determination was a &quot;long shot.&quot;</p><p>House Deputy Speaker Rep. Janette Garin described the Marcos impeachment cases &quot;brain dead,&quot; saying the chances of them &quot;surviving&quot; were &quot;very minimal.&quot;</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s quite difficult to get one-third of the members of Congress to support and to overturn the impeachment complaint,&quot; she said.</p><p>Makabayan President Liza Maza, one of the impeachment filers, earlier Wednesday admitted that filing an impeachment case against Marcos was an &quot;uphill battle&quot; in a House dominated by his allies.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/2/5/sara-duterte-impeachment-complaints-yet-to-be-referred-to-speaker-s-office-1206">Sara Duterte impeachment complaints yet to be referred to Speaker’s office</a></div><p>Gabriela party-list Rep. Sarah Elago meanwhile said they would continue to assert before the House plenary that the complaint they endorsed was sufficient in substance.</p><p>&quot;Babanggitin natin dito na hindi totoo na walang personal knowledge or based sa authentic records ‘yung naipresenta natin na mga grounds para sa impeachment… Gusto natin magkaroon ng pagkakataon na mag-present ng evidence at marinig mismo sa Pangulo ‘yung paliwanag,&quot; Elago said.</p><p>For lawyer Andre de Jesus, who filed the first impeachment complaint against the president, the House Committee on Justice &quot;went beyond&quot; the standard for declaring a complaint sufficient in substance.</p><p>&quot;The members of the House Committee on Justice decided to adopt a threshold of evidence that’s more proper during trial. That particular issue on attestation is evidentiary in character. We’re talking about the admissibility or weight of evidence, which is not proper at this stage of the impeachment proceedings,&quot; De Jesus said.</p><p>The House Committee on Justice is set to reconvene on Monday, February 9, to tackle and vote on the committee report, which will be submitted to the House plenary for voting.</p><div><br/></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>— With a report from Vivienne Gulla, ABS-CBN News and Agence France-Presse</strong></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEOS</strong></div><div><strong><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SHgEKJfVTx0?&amp;t=2s&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NS75zg0OkaY?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span></strong><br/></div>

<p>The chairperson of the House Committee on Justice insisted Thursday that panel members had voted "independently" on the impeachment complaints against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.</p>

The chairperson of the House Committee on Justice insisted Thursday that panel members had voted "independently" on the impeachment complaints against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

House justice panel chair: We voted 'independently' on Marcos impeachment complaints

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House justice panel chair: We voted 'independently' on Marcos impeachment complaints

Rowegie Abanto,

ABS-CBN News

Published Feb 05, 2026 02:52 PM PHT

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Updated Feb 05, 2026 04:27 PM PHT

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House of Representatives

Impeachment

Gerville Luistro

Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

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