A PETITION was filed on Friday to restrain the House Committee on Justice from proceeding with the impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte.
Meanwhile, Duterte’s camp rejected new allegations by detained former military agent Ramil Madriaga, calling them “comical and baseless,“ including claims linking former Negros Oriental Rep. Arnie Teves to an alleged threat.
In their 186-page plea, the petitioners sought the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) and writ of prohibition against proceeding with the third and fourth impeachment complaints.
“This Petition is a plea for constitutional obedience at the threshold of impeachment. It asks whether the House of Representatives may allow the grave process of impeachment to proceed on complaints that are constitutionally and procedurally defective on their face, and then use its own coercive machinery to supply what those complaints lacked from the beginning,” the petition stated.
Among the petitioners were lawyers Israelito Torreon, Resci Angelli Rizada-Nolasco, Martin Delgra III, Wendel Avisado, James Bondoc, Vic Rodriguez, Raul Lambino, Luna Acosta-Manlitoc, Jesus Hinlo, Jr. and Dr. Richard Mata.
While the House has the sole power to initiate impeachment, petitioners claimed that it does not have the power to relax its own threshold standards.
The petitioners argued that the sole power to initiate impeachment is not absolute.
They also assailed the committee’s findings that the third and fourth impeachment complaints were sufficient in form, substance, and grounds.
Torreon, a known ally of Duterte, clarified that they filed the petition in their capacity as taxpayers and not as a legal team of the Vice President.
“We filed as Filipino citizens and taxpayers, and in my case, also as one of the petitioners previously recognized by the Supreme Court in the earlier
Duterte v. House of Representatives case as having standing to challenge unconstitutional impeachment proceedings,” he said.
“The core vice we challenge is simple but serious: the House Committee on Justice abandoned the strict threshold discipline required by the Constitution and by the House Rules on Impeachment,” Torreon added.
In a statement, Duterte’s legal counsel Paolo Panelo described Madriaga’s allegations as an “obvious falsehood,” saying it followed what he called a pattern of misrepresentations about Madriaga’s supposed ties to the Vice President.
Madriaga has been subpoenaed as a witness in the impeachment hearings which continued on Friday.
“Let us recall that Madriaga, through his counsel, previously claimed that Vice President Sara Duterte visited him in jail to persuade him not to testify. That story was quickly debunked by DILG Secretary Jonvic Remulla, who confirmed that VP Sara visited Teves, not Madriaga,” Panelo said.
“Since his lie was exposed, Madriaga has conveniently shifted his narrative to insinuate that VP Sara, through Teves, is behind the alleged threat to his life,” he added.
The statement came after Akbayan Rep. Chel Diokno called for increased security for Madriaga, citing a new affidavit in which he claimed he was nearly dragged into a cell allegedly built by Teves.
Teves, who is detained at the same facility, has been implicated in the 2023 assassination of then-Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo.
Panelo also criticized the House Committee on Justice for giving weight to what he described as “unsubstantiated” claims.
“The House Justice Committee’s blind acceptance of this ridiculous and unsubstantiated narrative from a ‘polluted source’ only confirms the Committee’s willingness to entertain fabrications in pursuit of a politically motivated agenda,” he said.
In December, Remulla said prison records showed Duterte visited Teves at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.
Earlier this month, Duterte filed a perjury complaint against Madriaga, accusing him of falsely presenting himself as a campaign supporter before later emerging as a witness in the impeachment case against her.
In a sworn affidavit last December, Madriaga alleged he transported cash for Duterte, claiming he delivered duffel bags and vehicles filled with money to various locations on instructions allegedly linked to the vice president’s camp.
Duterte has repeatedly denied the allegations and said she has no personal ties to Madriaga.
