Vice President Sara Duterte’s defense team on Wednesday sought to distance itself from a parallel legal offensive before the Supreme Court (SC) aimed at stopping her impeachment trial.

Speaking to reporters before the trial proceedings on Wednesday, Poa said the defense panel was caught by surprise when lawyer Israelito Torreon and several others filed a very urgent manifestation, along with a motion, asking the high court to suspend the impeachment proceedings pending the resolution of constitutional issues surrounding the Senate’s leadership.

“I can categorically say that the defense team did not know there would be a petition or that there were plans to file one,” Poa said.

The clarification came a day after Torreon filed a Very Urgent Manifestation with motion before the Supreme Court, urging it to issue a temporary restraining order or status quo ante order suspending the Senate proceedings while it resolves petitions questioning the constitutionality of Duterte’s impeachment. Poa said he learned of the filing only after it had already been submitted.

“I only found out about it this morning during an interview,” he said. “We’ve been here at the Senate the whole day, so I wasn’t even monitoring whether the petition had already been filed.”

Asked whether Duterte herself had been informed beforehand, Poa said he could not say with certainty but believed she was likewise unaware.

“I don’t know if the Vice President knew, but I would suppose she didn’t because we never discussed the filing of any petition,” he said.

The defense spokesperson also denied coordinating with Torreon over the latest court action.

Distinct legal track

In the 16-page motion filed Tuesday, Torreon, Vic Rodriguez, and other petitioners asked the Supreme Court to issue a temporary restraining order or status quo ante order stopping the impeachment trial.

They argued that the Senate impeachment court is being presided over by Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero, whose authority, they claimed, stems from the 3 June Senate reorganization that remains under constitutional challenge before the high court.

The petitioners contended that allowing the trial to proceed while the validity of the proceedings remains unresolved could render the impeachment proceedings constitutionally defective and expose all subsequent rulings to legal challenge.

The motion supplements earlier petitions filed by Duterte and Torreon questioning the impeachment process, which remain pending before the SC.

Despite the filing, the Senate impeachment court continued hearing the case on Wednesday.

Under existing rules, proceedings are not automatically suspended by the filing of a petition before the SC absent an order from the tribunal itself.

The SC has yet to act on Torreon’s motion.