Senate Debates Vice President Sara Duterte Impeachment Trial
MANILA, Philippines — A fiery debate unfolded in the Senate plenary as senators confronted motions regarding the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte. The focus was on whether the trial should proceed following questions about its legal grounds.
Senator Rodante Marcoleta was the first to act. Shortly after the session began, he moved to dismiss the impeachment complaint against Duterte. He cited a Supreme Court ruling, claiming the House of Representatives committed multiple violations in filing the impeachment articles.
“The impeachment complaint is like rice cooked by the House of Representatives—completely raw,” Marcoleta said in Filipino, emphasizing the complaint’s flaws. He detailed how the House failed to follow proper verification procedures required for such complaints.
“It is already written in the rules what they must follow for verification, yet they didn’t even copy it,” he added in Filipino, underscoring procedural lapses.
Marcoleta insisted the Supreme Court had declared the entire impeachment complaint “unconstitutional, violative of due process, void ab initio” because the House did not adhere to its own impeachment rules.
He further argued that the House violated the constitutional one-year ban on multiple impeachment complaints against the same official, referring to Article 11, Section 3, Paragraph 5 of the Constitution.
Clarifying the Supreme Court’s position, Marcoleta said the court doesn’t prohibit impeachment but demands the correct procedures be followed. “That is the only point here. Fix it—if you want to impeach the VP, do it the right way. The merits aren’t being questioned; what’s being said is that you didn’t follow the process,” he stressed in Filipino.
After citing the Supreme Court’s stance, Marcoleta formally moved to dismiss the impeachment complaint against Duterte.
Opposition to Dismissal Motion
Senate Minority Leader Vicente Sotto III quickly responded, urging the Senate to hold off on dismissing the complaint “forthwith.” He questioned the finality of the Supreme Court ruling, noting a motion for reconsideration was recently filed by the House of Representatives.
“The decision is not yet final. A motion for reconsideration was filed by the House of Representatives just last Monday,” Sotto said during his interpellation. “Why are we rushing to dismiss the case?”
Sotto warned that dismissing the case prematurely could cause complications if the Supreme Court reverses its ruling. He cited past landmark cases where decisions were overturned, illustrating the unpredictability of the process.
The Minority Leader also raised concerns about the Supreme Court allegedly “amending the Constitution” by removing one mode of initiating impeachment complaints. He criticized the ruling’s coherence and quality, describing it as “incoherent and some parts are off-topic. It’s as if it was just patched together,” mixing Filipino and English.
“It even quoted the entire Article XI of the Constitution twice,” Sotto added. He called for patience and a chance for the Supreme Court to correct its decision, emphasizing the importance of setting a proper precedent for future impeachment proceedings.
LIVE UPDATES: Senate tackles impeachment case vs Sara Duterte
Amending or Tabling the Motion
Later, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano asked if Marcoleta’s motion could be amended. He suggested a compromise where the Senate would follow the Supreme Court decision but remain open to its potential reconsideration.
“Since we slightly disagree on dismissing, would the movant consider amending the motion so that the Senate simply follows the Supreme Court decision? This way, if the SC reconsiders, we follow; if they don’t, we still follow,” Cayetano proposed.
Marcoleta expressed openness to amending the motion to instead send the case to the “archive,” which he said would yield the same result and satisfy Senator Sotto.
However, Sotto opposed this idea, preferring to call for a “motion to table” or the previous question instead.
For more news and updates on Vice President Sara Duterte impeachment trial, visit Filipinokami.com.
