Senate tackles impeach case on 6 August

The Senate will decide on the impeachment case of Vice President Sara Duterte on 6 August, Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero announced Tuesday.

Speaking during the resumption of the plenary session, Escudero said the timeline was agreed on by the senators in an all-member caucus held earlier in the day.

“For the record, it was agreed in caucus that the matter will be decided upon by the Senate on 6 August, when we open the session on that date,” he said.

He noted the delay would “afford ample and sufficient time for the members to study the 97-page Supreme Court decision, excluding the concurring and separate opinions filed by five or six additional magistrates of the Supreme Court.”

The Senate chief was referring to the SC decision declaring the impeachment complaint against Duterte unconstitutional, citing the violation of the Constitution’s one-year bar provision on impeachment proceedings.

‘More time to study’

In an interview, Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, who is part of the Senate minority bloc, said the timeline stemmed from Senate Minority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto’s request for more time to study the High Court’s decision.

“Many of our colleagues, like me, are not lawyers. We want to carefully study the more than 90-page Supreme Court decision so there will be a meaningful debate in the plenary on 6 August,” Zubiri said.

He said some senators—whom he did not name—wanted to take up the impeachment case against Vice President Duterte to swiftly dismiss it.

“Today, he was going to stand up to move to dismiss, but I won’t say who. Of course, it’s within their group—you can ask members of their group—but they agreed, they considered the request of all the other members to set the date to 6 August,” he said.

Sara camp braces for another impeach rap

Meanwhile, the Vice President’s camp said they are prepared to face any fresh impeachment complaint that may be filed against her next year.

Lawyer Michael Poa, spokesperson for Duterte’s defense team, made the statement Tuesday, following the Supreme Court’s decision junking the fourth impeachment complaint against the Vice President over the “one-year bar rule.”

“We’re monitoring the situation closely,” Poa said in a television interview. “If another impeachment complaint is filed after the one-year ban lapses, we will be ready to respond.”

Poa said Duterte was prepared to go to trial had the case proceeded.

“In fact, the Vice President was eager to answer the allegations head-on. She told us she really wanted to face them directly,” he said. “We in the defense team had been preparing since February and we were ready.”

The Supreme Court granted their petition to declare the fourth impeachment complaint unconstitutional, citing the rule that bars the filing of more than one impeachment complaint against the same official within a year.

“We were optimistic from the start because we believed the fourth complaint clearly violated the Constitution’s one-year bar rule,” Poa said. “That was the heart of our petition, and we’re grateful the Court appreciated our arguments.”

However, Poa clarified that the SC ruling does not absolve Duterte of the allegations.

“The Supreme Court decision does not amount to an acquittal,” he explained. “What we challenged was the process of initiating the impeachment, not the merits of the case. The merits are tackled only if it reaches the Senate sitting as an impeachment court.”

Poa emphasized that the defense team never raised arguments about the content of the allegations, focusing solely on constitutional procedure.

“It was purely about the violation of due process and the Constitution,” he said.