The legal counsels of Vice President Sara Duterte have taken the impeachment case against her to the Supreme Court, alleging constitutional violations by the House Committee on Justice.
In a petition for certiorari and prohibition filed on March 27, 2026 and shared to the media, Torreon and Partners led by lawyer Israelito Torreon accused the House panel of committing “grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction” by allowing allegedly defective impeachment complaints to move forward.
“The Constitution does not defend itself. When constitutional boundaries are crossed, someone must go to Court,” Torreon said in a press statement.
Torreon stated that the Petition is not about placing the vice president above accountability but it is about ensuring that accountability remains constitutional.
The legal counsels argued that impeachment complaints must be dismissed outright if they fail the initial threshold of sufficiency.
“A complaint that is insufficient at threshold must be dismissed at threshold,” the statement emphasized.
Central to the petition is the March 25, 2026 hearing, where the lawyers claims the committee shifted from evaluating the sufficiency of the complaint to actively building a case.
According to Torreon, the panel approved sweeping subpoenas covering Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALNs), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) materials, Commission on Audit (COA) records, and even corporate financial documents not mentioned in the complaints.
The House Justice Committee has directed the Office of the Ombudsman to release Duterte’s statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth covering nearly 20 years in public office.
“What the Committee could not sustain through lawful threshold review, it sought to preserve through procedural overreach. Threshold review is not a license for a fishing expedition,” Torreon said.
The petition also challenges the third and fourth impeachment complaints, describing them as “defective both in form and substance,” allegedly relying on hearsay, unauthenticated materials, and conclusions rather than concrete allegations.
“Impeachment is a grave constitutional process. It is not a political free-for-all,” Torreon stressed.
“It is not a mechanism that may be stretched, improvised, or weaponized depending on the identity of the respondent,” he added.
The legal counsels further raised concerns about alleged bias within the Committee, noting that some members had publicly aligned themselves with the complaints.
The petition criticized a “double standard,” comparing how past impeachment complaints were handled versus Duterte’s case.
The petition is asking the SC to void the Committee’s actions and issue a TRO or preliminary injunction to stop further proceedings.
“This is not a political-question case. This is a constitutional-limits case. If impeachment is to proceed, it must proceed constitutionally. The Constitution allows impeachment it does not allow impeachment by fishing expedition,” Torreon said.
