Sara camp urges SC to reject House MR

The camp of Vice President Sara Duterte has urged the Supreme Court to deny the Motion for Reconsideration filed by the House of Representatives (HOR) on its earlier ruling declaring the fourth impeachment complaint against her unconstitutional.

Duterte, through her counsel in a legal comment submitted to the Court, argued that the decision was firmly grounded on constitutional principles, dismissing the House’s claims of factual misunderstandings as irrelevant to the legal reasoning of the ruling.

She stressed in her petition that the Court correctly found the fourth impeachment complaint to be in violation of the constitutional one-year bar rule. The House had earlier archived three impeachment complaints and later transmitted a fourth, an action the Court said circumvented constitutional limits.

Duterte's submission reiterated the Court’s finding that the HOR committed grave abuse of discretion by failing to follow required procedures, including plenary voting and the proper referral of complaints. It also emphasized that due process must be observed at every stage of impeachment proceedings to ensure fairness and compliance with constitutional safeguards.

Her camp also challenged the validity of the Motion for Reconsideration itself, noting that it lacked authorization from the plenary of the 20th Congress and was therefore procedurally defective.

The legal comment emphasized the Supreme Court’s authority to review grave abuses of discretion by Congress, highlighting that constitutional supremacy prevails over legislative actions. It also rejected the House’s position that the Court’s doctrinal pronouncements should apply only prospectively, stating that all parties in the case are bound by the ruling.

Finally, the filing asserted that impeachment must be treated as a legal and deliberative process, not merely a political tool, and asked the Court to uphold its original decision.