‘No one can stop’ Sara Duterte impeachment trial: Philippine House prosecutors
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Philippine senators are seated after taking their oath as jurors in the impeachment trial of Vice-President Sara Duterte, in Manila on June 10, 2025.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
MANILA - House of Representatives prosecutors said on June 11 that Philippine Vice-President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial could not be stopped despite the Senate sending the case back to them hours after convening as a court.
Prosecutors told an afternoon press briefing their case had complied strictly with the constitution, adding that they would seek clarification over what they called “confusing” Senate orders.
Ms Duterte was impeached in early February
A guilty verdict would see her removed from office and permanently barred from politics
“No one can stop this anymore, because jurisdiction has been acquired already by the impeachment court,” said Congresswoman Gerville Luistro, pointing to the Senate’s issuing of a summons for Ms Duterte late on the night of June 11.
“There will be no... withdrawal (of the impeachment case) by the House. That is not allowed by the constitution.”
The 18-5 Senate vote on the night of June 10 ordered the House to certify it had not violated the Constitution by hearing three impeachment complaints before the one that ultimately went to a vote.
The Constitution bars subjecting anyone to multiple impeachment proceedings within the same year.
But House member Ysabel Maria Zamora said the final impeachment complaint had “consolidated all the articles” of the first three into one.
On the night of June 11, the House passed a resolution certifying that the impeachment proceedings against Ms Duterte fully complied with the Constitution, including the filings of the first three complaints.
A second order to guarantee the case would move forward after new House members take their seats on June 30 was “impossible” to fulfill as they could not speak for a future Congress, prosecutors said.
Outside the Senate, several hundred protesters gathered on June 11, shouting slogans and pounding on the gates as they called for the body to follow through with the impeachment trial.
“Political survival”
The Senate’s vote to remand was as much a matter of “political survival” as anything, lawyer and former senator Leila de Lima told AFP on June 11.
Ms De Lima, who warned more than a week ago that the Senate could move to kill the impeachment, said the spectre of a still-powerful Ms Duterte was likely on lawmakers’ minds.
“Loyalty, friendship, political survival. Maybe they are thinking the Dutertes are very much around even if the patriarch (ex-president Rodrigo Duterte) is in The Hague,” she said.
The elder Duterte has been imprisoned since March
His daughter has been widely mooted as a presidential candidate in 2028 should she survive the impeachment process.
Senators “were trying to protect their political ambitions”, agreed Congresswoman France Castro, who endorsed an early impeachment complaint against the vice-president.
Asked at the June 11 press briefing if he believed the Senate was deliberately delaying the trial, Congressman Keith Flores said the answer was clear.
“I cannot speak for everyone but for me, yes.” AFP
