House trial spokesperson Robert Ace Barbers expressed belief that it would be better for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to remain neutral on the ongoing impeachment trial against Vice President Sara Duterte at the Senate.

The former congressman highlighted that Marcos and the Senate serve independent purposes and that it was important for the executive branch to refrain from meddling in issues being tackled by the legislative branch.

“Well, for me, he should not intervene because the position of the President is that he will not meddle in these impeachment proceedings, and let the senator-judges decide because the executive is independent from the legislative,” Barbers explained.

Questions surrounding the President’s involvement in the trial were rekindled after Duterte publicly renewed her calls for the resignation of her former political ally during a rally in Quezon City on 11 September.

She accused Marcos of being the biggest problem in the country while also reiterating her belief that the chief executive was using illegal drugs.

“Get out of there. You are a liar, you’re abusive, and corrupt,” she said. “Remember, we will continue to call for the removal of the problem plaguing our country, and that problem is Bongbong Marcos.”

The Vice President was coming off her scheduled arraignment for three counts of grave threats for allegedly threatening the President, First Lady Liza Marcos, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez.

Once allies, the two prominent political figures from the Marcos and Duterte dynasties now sit at seemingly opposing ends, with Sara claiming that the President was mobilizing state authorities to target her allies.

Even with the rift, Barbers said impeachment was a process that did not factor in political allegiance but was a constitutional proceeding that had to be resolved on reasonable grounds.

“[Senator-judges] must rest their decision on the weight of the evidence. So for me, the [President] no longer needs to speak about his opinion regarding this,” he said.

The former congressman further stated that the only thing Marcos had to do was to “trust the process” given that the trial was well underway at the Senate.

“[The President] must remain independent, he must trust the process, and most importantly, he must respect the decision of the senator-judges in the whole court,” he explained.

Marcos not meddling in impeachment

Since Duterte’s first impeachment in 2025, Marcos has maintained that he will have no hand in the impeachment and would simply remain focused on his responsibilities as the leader of the country.

When the trial first began on 6 July, Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said there was no “need” for the President to monitor the trial as he had “more work to do” rather than “sit down” to observe how the proceedings unfolded.

Castro, however, has since called out senator-judges who were supposedly acting as “defense lawyers” for the Vice President due to apparent partiality in the clarificatory questions they asked witnesses during the trial.

“[Senator-judges] should not be debating with witnesses because their mandate is to seek the truth for the public, not to sweep away the law, sweep what the people need to know just to cover up for the alleged misconduct of others,” she said.

The presidential spokesperson also singled out Senator Pia Cayetano, who posted a spliced video on her Facebook page concerning public prosecutor Rep. Chel Diokno.

Castro, a lawyer herself, said it was their duty to avoid spreading fake news that could mislead the public into believing alternative narratives.