Trial deferred

The impeachment of a Vice President is the kind of political spectacle that grips the nation. It had all the makings of high drama, with four complaints, a bitterly divided Senate, the Vice President calling the case “a scrap of paper,” and the Supreme Court stepping in with a ruling that upheld the 1987 Constitution and an impeachment process that must at all times be followed, given the high importance of this procedure.

It began quietly, in the dying weeks of 2024, when several groups filed impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte. The allegations varied, but the intent was clear: to challenge one of the most powerful figures in the Duterte political clan. By 5 February 2025, the House of Representatives had thrown its considerable weight behind one single complaint, passing it overwhelmingly and transmitting the articles to the Senate — a risky move that later proved to be the complaint’s downfall.

But in the Senate, momentum faltered with the existence and later election of the Vice President’s allies in the May 2025 elections. At one time, the senators took their oaths as members of an impeachment court, but the mood was tense, not triumphant. Minority members like Risa Hontiveros and Koko Pimentel urged swift action, sensing a historic opportunity. Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero, wary of plunging the chamber into a constitutional minefield, opted for caution.

Then came the Vice President’s counterattack. In a formal response, she framed the complaint as fatally flawed — not because of its content, but because of its timing. The Constitution, she argued, allows only one impeachment proceeding against the same official in any 12-month period. Multiple complaints had been filed in late 2024; therefore, the one-year ban was already in play.

The argument found its audience in the Supreme Court. On 25 July 2025, the justices sided with Duterte, ruling the complaint unconstitutional and underscoring the one-year prohibition. With the clock now reset to February 2025, no fresh impeachment could be validly initiated until February 2026. The ruling was final, immediate, and unambiguous.

The Senate was left with a choice: defy the Court and press on, or yield. On 6 August, in a decisive 19–4–1 vote, it chose a third path of archiving the case. It was neither a dismissal nor an act of defiance. It was a maneuver that kept the complaint in limbo, allowing for the possibility of revival if the Court ever reversed itself.

To the cynic, this was politics, but it was also something rarer in today’s political climate — a recognition that the separation of powers is more than a slogan. The Senate acknowledged the Court’s ruling as binding, even if it left some members privately fuming.

However, the narrative is far from over. In six months, the constitutional ban will lift. Whether the forces arrayed against the Vice President will regroup is anyone’s guess. But for now, the curtain has fallen on Act One. And in this political drama, the pause may prove as significant as the play itself.