The House Committee on Justice on Monday, March 2, has approved a motion to set aside the first impeachment complaint filed by Castro and others against Sara Duterte, citing a violation of the one-year prohibition period under the Constitution.

The panel’s decision effectively narrows down the pending impeachment cases against the Vice President to two — the third complaint filed by Rev. Joel Saballa and others, and the fourth complaint lodged by Atty. Nathaniel Cabrera.

During Monday’s proceedings, the committee also declared both the third and fourth impeachment complaints as “sufficient in form.”

“There are only two impeachment complaints now, the third and the fourth. And during our proceeding today we deliberated already on the sufficiency in form and we concluding with voting, in which case both impeachment complaints, the third and the fourth were both declared to be ‘sufficient in form,’” Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro, the committee chair, said.

She added that the panel will proceed to tackle the sufficiency in substance of the two remaining complaints in its next meeting.

“Because of that, for our tomorrow’s meeting, we will be deliberating on sufficiency in substance of these two impeachment complaints. The first was withdrawn, the second set aside,” Luistro said.

Earlier in the day, the committee voted to set aside the first impeachment complaint filed by members of the Makabayan bloc, ruling that it allegedly violated the constitutional one-year bar rule, which prohibits the initiation of impeachment proceedings against the same official more than once within a one-year period.

No lawmaker raised any objection to the motion declaring the third and fourth complaints sufficient in form, prompting the committee chair to formally issue the declaration.

With the first complaint withdrawn and the second set aside, the focus now shifts to the substantive evaluation of the two remaining impeachment complaints against the Vice President.