SC orders Sara to answer House appeal on impeachment ruling

Vice President Sara Duterte was given 10 days by the Supreme Court (SC) to respond to a motion for reconsideration filed by the House of Representatives, which seeks to overturn the High Court’s recent ruling voiding her impeachment.

“We will comply with the order of the Supreme Court and submit our comment within the period provided,” Duterte’s legal counsel, Atty. Michael Poa, said in a message to reporters on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court earlier ruled that the articles of impeachment adopted by the House on 5 February violated the Constitution’s one-year bar on repeat impeachment filings.

It also cited a lack of due process, saying the Senate had not acquired jurisdiction over the case. The decision, handed down on 25 July with a 13-0-2 vote, was declared immediately final and executory.

Duterte, her lawyer Israelito Torreon, and other petitioners were ordered to comment within a non-extendible 10-day period. The same deadline applies to Rep. Percival Cendaña and others who had filed a separate motion for reconsideration and a motion to intervene.

The House, in its appeal, maintained it properly exercised its exclusive power to initiate impeachment and that the Senate must try the case. It argued that the complaint was duly approved in plenary before being transmitted to the upper chamber.

At least three other motions for reconsideration have been filed since the SC’s landmark ruling. Among the latest was an omnibus motion from retired Supreme Court justices Antonio Carpio and Conchita Carpio Morales, backed by the 1Sambayan coalition, religious leaders, and human rights groups.

“Impeachment is the Constitution’s check against abuse of power,” the group said in its filing. “By imposing new procedural hurdles, the Court has weakened this safeguard.”

The motion urged the SC to issue a status quo ante order to prevent the Senate from dismissing the case while the appeal is pending. It also requested oral arguments to address constitutional concerns raised by the ruling, particularly the added requirement of pre-trial evidentiary hearings in impeachment cases.

Senate leaders had planned to formally dismiss the case this week, citing the SC’s ruling, but the new motions may delay final resolution.

The SC also ordered Cendaña, Lorenzo Gadon, and political commentator Richard Heydarian to respond to indirect contempt petitions stemming from their public statements criticizing the decision.

The Office of the Solicitor General, representing Congress, has 15 days to file its comment.