(UPDATED) THE House Committee on Justice met Tuesday to determine if an impeachment complaint filed against Vice President Sara Duterte was sufficient in substance, but did not vote on the matter.
Instead, the panel voted to strike from the record a statement by Quezon City 4th District Rep. Jesus Manuel Suntay, who made sexually suggestive references to the actress Anne Curtis while defending Duterte.
At the hearing, Suntay said Duterte’s mere presence in a rally did not make her action seditious.
As to her appointing herself the designated survivor when she said she would not attend the 2024 State of the Nation Address, he said she was probably joking, since there is no designated survivor mechanism in the country.
Then addressing Duterte’s statement that she imagined killing President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Suntay said he saw Anne Curtis at the Shangri-La, and she was so beautiful and desirable that he imagined what might happen. “But of course, it was just my imagination. Maybe I cannot be sued because I imagined various things,” he said in Filipino.
San Juan Rep. Ysabel Zamora, vice chairman of the committee, then said she would like to have the statements stricken off the record.
“There is nothing sexual in what I said. Nothing immoral. It’s just, I said, I imagined something,” Suntay said.
Zamora’s motion was seconded but also objected to and the committee put the matter to a vote.
Voting 13-2 with two abstentions, the committee ordered that Suntay’s comment be stricken from the record.
He said, “I think we are starting a dangerous precedent because now we are censuring manifestations which [are] neither illegal or immoral.”
Zamora said, “With all due respect to my friend, congressman Bong Suntay, it is just the start of the Women’s Month and I don’t think that we should be hearing such comments from our dear colleagues. We are not censuring anything but we are reminding them that in fact, we should support women by not saying these statements.”
The House committee finished its deliberations on the substance sufficiency of the complaint but did not yet vote on the matter.
On Wednesday, the panel will deliberate on whether the impeachment complaint filed by lawyer Nathaniel Cabrera is sufficient in substance.
Batangas 2nd District Rep. Gerville Luistro, chairman of the committee, said in a press conference on Tuesday that they would vote as soon as they finished deliberating on the fourth impeachment complaint.
On Monday, the committee declared the two complaints — the third and fourth filed earlier this year against Duterte — as sufficient in form.
The third impeachment complaint, endorsed by Mamamayang Liberal Rep. Leila de Lima, was filed on Feb. 9, 2026.
The fourth complaint was filed on Feb. 18, 2026. It was endorsed by Manila 6th District Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr., chairman of the House Committee on Human Rights, and Deputy Speaker and La Union 1st District Rep. Francisco Paolo Ortega V.
On Monday, the committee set aside the first of the impeachment complaints filed earlier this year against Duterte. Voting 22-10, the committee set the complaint aside on the ground of violation of the one-year bar rule.
The Makabayan bloc — composed of ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio, Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Sarah Elago, and Kabataan Rep. Renee Co — had endorsed the complaint, which was filed on Feb. 2, 2026 by private persons.
The 1987 Constitution prohibits the initiation of impeachment proceedings against the same official more than once within a one-year period.
While the committee set aside the first of the impeachment complaints filed earlier this year against Duterte and declared the third and fourth ones sufficient in form, it approved the withdrawal of the second one.
The withdrawn complaint was filed by 17 people and was endorsed by de Lima and Akbayan Rep. Percival Cendaña. They withdrew their endorsement after the complainants decided to drop the complaint.
The lawmakers said the complainants in the second complaint decided to withdraw it “in the interest of procedural expediency and to obviate any needless delay.”
Unwanted reactions
Actress Jasmine Curtis- Smith took offense on Suntay's lewd remarks on her older sister during the House Commitee on Justice. She posted several messages on social media citing her disgust and dissapointment towards the lawmaker
"RESPECTFULLY, BONG SUNTAY, WHAT ON EARTH???BAKIT GANON ANG THINKING?, Curtis wrote.
Veteran news anchor Karen Davila also expressed here disappointed towards Suntay's statement on social media as well and urges him to apologize on behalf on everywomen.
“A congressman. A representative of the people. Paid by the people. A husband, a father with daughters. Without the consciousness, knowledge or decency of how women should be talked about. Please keep your sick thoughts to yourself,” Davila wrote.
PBB Hosts Bianca Gonzalez and Gabbi Garcia also had a say on controversial remarks noting them as "digusting" and should not be normalize to everyone.
An apology is required
Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte asked Rep. Suntay to apologize over the inappropriate remark he made about Anne Curtis during a House hearing.
"I urge Congressman Bong Suntay to apologize for the inappropriate remarks that he made at a recent House committee hearing," Belmonte wrote. "His words directly contradict the spirit of empowerment that we have worked hard to build here in Quezon City. Over the years, we have embraced the difficult work of establishing protections for women, constantly striving to honor their rights by creating safe spaces and opportunities for them."
"In this context, it is truly disappointing to witness Congressman Suntay’s casual display of objectification, on Women’s Month no less. But what makes this incident especially troubling is the fact that, as a former member of our City Council, he was part of the body that passed our Gender and Development Code, " she adds.
