The Impeachment Court said the proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte would continue at the Senate even if there is a pending petition before the Supreme Court questioning the legality of Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero serving as presiding officer.

“It will continue because there is no Temporary Restraining Order or Status Quo Ante Order issued by the Supreme Court,” said Atty. Regie Tongol, spokesperson for the Senate Impeachment Court, on Tuesday.

Tongol added that the Impeachment Court respects the constitutional right of any party to seek legal remedies, quoting Escudero as saying that any person can raise the matter and exhaust all available legal remedies.

“But there is already a petition filed at the SC. The Impeachment Court will not make any further comment because we respect the sub judice rule,” he said.

The spokesperson said that once the SC issues a TRO or a Status Quo Ante Order, the senator-judges would vote as a collegial body on whether to heed the order of a coequal branch.

Lawyer Israelito Torreon and other barristers questioned Escudero’s authority by filing a 16-page Very Urgent Manifestation with Motion, urging the Supreme Court to issue a TRO or a Status Quo Ante Order.

The lawyers argued that allowing Escudero to serve as presiding officer “risks the validity of the proceedings.”

The petitioners stressed that the amendment to the Rules of Procedure on Impeachment Trials, which was adopted during a session on 3 June, is “void,” adding that the session's 12-member quorum is also being challenged.

“The officer presiding over the impeachment derives his claimed authority from the very June 3, 2026, proceedings whose validity is now pending before this honorable court. If those proceedings are void, then the authority of the presiding officer is necessarily placed under grave constitutional doubt,” the petition read.