Probable cause already within reach in VP Sara impeachment, says legal expert

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April 29, 2026 | 10:29am

MANILA, Philippines — Enough evidence already exists for the House justice panel to find probable cause against Vice President Sara Duterte on any of the three articles of impeachment against her, a former Philippine Bar Association president said Wednesday morning, April 29.

Based on the past three hearings alone, there is "definitely" enough basis to proceed with the impeachment, lawyer Rico Domingo said. 

"There is already probable cause. And as I've said in a previous interview, probable cause can be established on any of the three articles," he said in Filipino in an interview with DZMM TeleRadyo.

He pointed to the 2012 impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona as precedent. In that case, the Senate stopped the trial after establishing a single SALN violation and moved directly to conviction. The same approach, Domingo said, could apply with Duterte's case.

The committee's fourth hearing began at 10 a.m. today with National Bureau of Investigation Director Melvin Matibag expected to share findings from their investigation into Duterte's 2024 claim of hiring a hitman to go after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez should she herself be killed.

Matibag told journalists over the weekend that Duterte's November 2024 remarks were not a "metaphor nor a hyperbole." The NBI, Matibag said, had established she spoke to someone for that purpose. 

The bureau found basis for two possible violations of the Revised Penal Code — grave threats and inciting to sedition — and has filed a complaint before the Department of Justice's National Prosecution Service. 

Domingo said proving the threat allegation should be a straightforward endeavor. The video footage is "self-explanatory," he said, and can be authenticated under the Supreme Court's Rules on Electronic Evidence, which apply in House proceedings. 

"The whole Philippines and the whole world saw it," he said in Filipino.

During the impeachment hearing today, Domingo said the NBI will likely walk lawmakers through the process of how they authenticated the footage. 

Duterte had delivered the remarks during a midnight Zoom "press briefing" with reporters, where she hurled expletives at the president and other officials over their alleged politicking and betrayal of their alliance.

The vice president had defended her remarks against the president and his family by explaining that this was a "conditional threat" and not an active plot to harm them. 

The money trail

The hearing also comes on the heels of explosive financial disclosures from the previous session. On April 22, the Anti-Money Laundering Council told the committee that bank accounts tied to Duterte and her husband, lawyer Manases Carpio, had been flagged for suspicious and covered transactions from 2006 to 2025 totaling P6.77 billion. 

This figure, as lawmakers pointed out, far exceeded her declared net worth of P88.4 million.  

Carpio filed criminal complaints on Monday against the BSP governor, the AMLC executive director and four committee members, accusing them of violating bank secrecy and data privacy laws. He did not challenge the transaction figures themselves. 

The committee today is also expected to decide whether to open a sealed box from the Bureau of Internal Revenue containing the couple's income tax returns, a question deferred from the last hearing.