The President has publicly disavowed any role in the impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte, even as the Senate prepares to reconvene next week to deliberate on the charges.

“I don’t want her impeached,” Marcos said, calling the situation a matter solely for Congress. “It’s up to them.”

Despite his stated reluctance, the process is proceeding.

Several impeachment complaints have been filed, none, Marcos insists, by allies or members of his administration.

Multiple complaints have been filed, including three endorsed by Akbayan Rep. Perci Cendaña, former senator Leila de Lima, the Makabayan bloc, and former Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño.

The complaints were lodged by religious leaders, civil society groups, and families of extrajudicial killing victims.

Marcos stressed that those who filed the complaints acted independently: “You can’t say I ordered them.”

The Palace has maintained that it holds no official position and played no role in the filing. Still, the timing has raised questions, especially given Duterte’s resignation from the Cabinet earlier this year and her increasingly public rift with the President.

Marcos, who sat as a senator during the 2012 impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona, recalled that proceedings then were shaped as they happened.

“We were making rules as we went along,” he said.

Analysts see the case as both a constitutional test and a preview of the 2028 elections.