{"id":11710,"date":"2025-07-15T00:55:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T23:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/?p=11710"},"modified":"2025-07-14T14:06:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T13:06:42","slug":"senate-may-dismiss-sara-duterte-impeachment-case-says-senate-president-escudero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/senate-may-dismiss-sara-duterte-impeachment-case-says-senate-president-escudero\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate may dismiss Sara Duterte impeachment case, says Senate President Escudero"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Senate impeachment court could decide<\/a> by a simple majority – at least 13 votes – whether to dismiss the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte, according to Senate President and Presiding Officer Francis Escudero. Speaking at a June 25, 2025, press conference, Escudero clarified<\/a> that any motion, including one for dismissal, may be resolved without a full trial.<\/p>\n

When asked if the case could be dropped without a formal hearing, Escudero responded<\/a>, \u201cEverything is possible,\u201d but added that he personally preferred that evidence be presented before any ruling is made.<\/p>\n

The trial is tentatively set<\/a> to begin on July 30, 2025.<\/p>\n

Sara Duterte submitted<\/a> her response to the articles of impeachment on June 23, 2025, pleading not guilty and urging the court to dismiss the case. She claimed<\/a> that the House violated the Constitution\u2019s one-year ban by impeaching her in February based on a fourth petition.<\/p>\n

Duterte also said<\/a> she cannot be compelled to respond to the impeachment articles that have been returned by the Senate to the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n

Prosecution spokesman Antonio Bucoy argued<\/a> that the articles of impeachment against Duterte remains valid, pointing out that the Senate issued the writ of summons that led her to submit a response.<\/p>\n

Impeachment prosecutors returned<\/a> the articles of impeachment to the House of Representatives \u201cwithout dismissing nor terminating\u201d \u00a0the impeachment case when the Senate officially convened as an impeachment court on June 10, 2025.<\/p>\n

The prosecutors sought<\/a> to clarify two points: whether the House of Representatives did not violate the law while filing impeachment complaints and whether the 20th Congress remains committed to the impeachment process.<\/p>\n

In its response filed with the Senate impeachment court on June 25, 2025, the House of Representatives defended<\/a> its process, asserting it did not violate constitutional rules. The confirmation<\/a> of its commitment to the impeachment process cannot happen until Congress reconvenes on July 28, creating a temporary legal gap during the transition.<\/p>\n

Opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros opposed<\/a> the idea of dismissing the case without a full trial. \u201cI do not agree that it is our right, as the Senate impeachment trial court, to vote on and decide on a motion to dismiss,\u201d she said, stressing the need for a proper trial before a decision is made.<\/p>\n

Senator Panfilo Lacson echoed<\/a> this sentiment, saying it would be improper for senators acting as judges to dismiss the case without hearing the evidence. He cited<\/a> Article XI, Section 3 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, which grants the Senate the sole power to try impeachment cases. The Constitution does not grant<\/a> the Senate, acting as an impeachment court, the authority to dismiss a case without first hearing the evidence.<\/p>\n

A recent national survey revealed<\/a> that 78% of Filipinos support proceeding with the trial, reflecting strong public sentiment for accountability among high-ranking officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Senate impeachment court could decide by a simple majority – at least 13 votes – whether to dismiss the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte, according to Senate President and Presiding Officer Francis Escudero. Speaking at a June 25, 2025, press conference, Escudero clarified that any motion, including one for dismissal, may be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":11624,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[73,58,59,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aktuelles-en","category-human-rights-news","category-internal-affairs","category-news-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11710"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11811,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11710\/revisions\/11811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}