VP Sara Duterte goes to SC to challenge impeachment

The Supreme Court was the venue chosen by Vice President Sara Duterte for her second legal challenge against her impeachment.

The filing of the petition for certiorari and prohibition on Tuesday was confirmed by Supreme Court spokesperson Atty. Camille Ting, who said the high court received Duterte's petition but that it was not discussed during the en banc session on the same day.

In her petition, the Vice President questioned the validity and constitutionality of the fourth impeachment complaint, which was eventually transmitted by the House of Representatives.

“The petition seeks judicial intervention from the High Court to uphold due process and raises serious legal and constitutional concerns,” said Fortun, Narvasa and Salazar Law, the firm representing the Vice President.

The law firm said in a statement “The Vice President, for her part, trusts that the Supreme Court will exercise its constitutional duty to safeguard democratic principles and uphold the rule of law.”

A copy of the petition showed Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero, House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, and House Secretary General Reginald Velasco were named as respondents.

A group of lawyers supporting Duterte filed a separate petition on Tuesday to dismiss the impeachment and prevent the Senate from proceeding with a trial, citing the lack of time devoted to its evaluation in the House of Representatives, where it was introduced and passed on the same day.

Lawyers Israelito Torreon and Martin Delgra III argued in their petition for certiorari that the House of Representatives committed a grave abuse of discretion when it issued the articles of impeachment against Duterte.

They averred that the initiation of the impeachment complaint was procedurally defective, constitutionally infirm, and jurisdictionally void.

Torreon said the impeachment complaint was processed without prior committee evaluation and with defects in the verification process.

He explained that the verification process requires that the allegations must be personally known or have been personally studied by the congressmen who signed the complaint.

Duterte is facing a Senate trial on charges of "violation of the constitution, betrayal of public trust, graft and corruption, and other high crimes." Among the crimes outlined is an alleged assassination plot against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

She has insisted that her remark about having instructed a man to kill Marcos, were she to be killed first, was taken out of context.