FACT CHECK: Gerville Luistro not removed from House

Claim: Batangas 2nd District Representative Gerville Luistro has been removed from office. 

Rating: FALSE 

Why we fact-checked this: A post published on March 10 containing the claim has already received 14,398 reactions, 4,700 comments, and 643 shares, and continues to gain engagement as of this posting. 

It was posted following the House justice committee’s hearing on the impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte, where Luistro serves as chairperson. 

The post shows a composite photo of Duterte, Senator Rodante Marcoleta, and two images of Luistro: a crying one, and another with stacks of cash on a table.  The text on the photo reads: “Luistro sinibak. VP Sara nilantad na si Mary Grace Piatos (Luistro fired. VP Sara reveals Mary Grace Piatos).”

The caption also implies that the impeachment against Duterte has been “orchestrated” by higher officials in Congress, indicating that she was just a victim of politics. 

Most of the comments empathized with Duterte. One commenter wrote, “Lumaban ka VP SARA labanan mo ang mga salot sa gobyerno ni Marcos Jr (Fight VP Sara, fight the plagues in the Marcos Jr. government), which is a government that is good for nothing but corruption and stealing.“

The facts: Luistro has not been removed from office. On March 13, 2026, three days after the false claim was posted, Luistro appeared in an interview with DZMM Teleradyo, where she was introduced as Batangas 2nd District representative.

Luistro’s profile also remains visible on the official website of the House of Representatives as Batangas 2nd District representative and justice committee chairperson. 

Manipulated photo: The photo of Luistro with stacks of cash on a table in front of her is manipulated. The original photo was published in Journal News Online in 2023. It shows a pile of documents and not cash. 

In the photo, Luistro was with former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) secretary Manny Bonoan and then undersecretary Roberto Bernardo for the groundbreaking ceremony of the Tingloy Circumferential Road construction in Batangas. 

Reverse image search also shows that the crying photo of Luistro was originally an image of her with a blank expression during a House hearing. The image was posted as early as June 2025. 

No impeachment vs. Luistro: The House has not initiated any impeachment complaint against Luistro because according to the 1987 Philippine Constitution, members of the Congress are not impeachable. They are the ones responsible for initiating and judging the impeachment process itself. Instead, they are held accountable through their own internal rules, which allow for suspension or expulsion by a two-thirds vote of their colleagues. 

Under Article VI, Section 16 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, only members of the legislative chamber have the exclusive power to “determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds of all its Members, suspend or expel a Member.”

Meanwhile, under Republic Act No. 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, public officials may also face “perpetual disqualification from public office” once convicted with finality of corrupt practices. 

Impeachment complaints: Luistro heads the House justice committee’s hearing for the impeachment complaints against Duterte, where two complaints were declared sufficient in substance.

In her response to the complaints, Duterte criticized the alleged “double standards” of the House in handling impeachment proceedings, comparing her case to that of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. She argued that despite serious allegations of corruption against Marcos, the House justice committee dismissed the complaints against the President. 

She also pointed out that the allegations of Ramil Madriaga — her former employee, who claimed that he had coordinated with Duterte’s security officers to transport cash to numerous individuals — were “unsubstantiated.”

Debunked: Rappler has previously debunked similar false claims about public officials and the impeachment: 

• FACT CHECK: 2025 news report used to claim VP Sara is now impeached 
• FACT CHECK: No Supreme Court order expelling Abante from House 
• FACT CHECK: Sandro Marcos remains House majority leader; no SC ruling against him 
• FACT CHECK: Ombudsman Remulla still in office, not dismissed by Supreme Court 

– Angelee Kaye Abelinde/Rappler.com 

Angelee Kaye Abelinde is a student journalist based in Naga City and an alumna of Rappler’s Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship 2024. 

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