{"id":11934,"date":"2025-08-12T00:55:41","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T23:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/?p=11934"},"modified":"2025-08-11T09:50:45","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T08:50:45","slug":"senate-archives-impeachment-process-against-vice-president-sara-duterte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/senate-archives-impeachment-process-against-vice-president-sara-duterte\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate \u201carchives\u201d impeachment process against Vice President Sara Duterte"},"content":{"rendered":"

With 19 votes in favor, 4 against, and one abstention, the Senate \u201carchived\u201d the Articles of Impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte on August 6, 2025, in accordance with an earlier ruling of the Philippine Supreme Court (SC) that halted<\/a> her trial.<\/p>\n

The unanimous SC ruling<\/a>, delivered<\/a> on July 25, 2025 by a 13-0-2 vote, found the impeachment complaint in breach of the constitution\u2019s \u201cone-year bar rule\u201d and lacking due process, rendering it void from the outset.<\/p>\n

The \u201cone-year bar rule,\u201d enshrined in the 1987 Constitution, prohibits<\/a> initiating more than one impeachment proceeding against the same official within a 12-month period. The SC noted that three earlier complaints against Duterte were dismissed<\/a> as of February 5, 2025. As a result, the fourth and most recent complaint<\/a> – filed on February 5 as well – was deemed unconstitutional, and any further attempts must wait<\/a> until February 6, 2026.<\/p>\n

The decision, penned<\/a> by Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, underscored that impeachment is not solely a political exercise but must adhere to legal procedures, including fair deliberation, proper evidence sharing, and the respondent\u2019s right to due process.<\/p>\n

While the ruling halts<\/a> the trial, it does not absolve Duterte from any of the charges against her. The vice president still faces<\/a> grave allegations, including misuse of 612.5 million pesos in confidential funds and issuing threats<\/a> against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and other officials.<\/p>\n

Critics argue the ruling amounts to a political reprieve<\/a>, shielding Duterte – considered a strong contender for the 2028 presidential race – from immediate accountability.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court’s decision has sparked<\/a> a constitutional clash between the judiciary and the legislative branch. The House of Representatives, backed by prominent legal coalitions – including the 1Sambayan coalition and former Supreme Court justices Antonio Carpio and Conchita Carpio Morales – has filed<\/a> motions for reconsideration on July 29, 2025, and requested a status quo ante order to halt the Senate\u2019s dismissal of the case while appeals are pending.<\/p>\n

The Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) disagreed<\/a> with the Supreme Court’s decision, noting that if not reconsidered, it will establish a \u201cdangerous precedent\u201d that would severely weaken impeachment as an accountability mechanism for the highest-ranking public officials under the 1987 Constitution.<\/p>\n

Human rights groups condemned<\/a> the decision. Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said<\/a> \u201cit is not only Sara Duterte who has been granted a reprieve that enables her to engage in more corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahead of the Senate decision over the SC impeachment ruling, Senator Rodante Marcoleta argued<\/a> that the impeachment was invalid due to procedural flaws and claimed it ended with the 19th Congress. He moved<\/a> to dismiss the trial. Minority bloc member Senator Panfilo Lacson, however, argued<\/a> such a motion was not supported by Senate rules.<\/p>\n

Senate Minority Leader Tito Sotto questioned<\/a> the rush to dismiss, noting the SC\u2019s ruling against the impeachment is not final, as the House has earlier filed a motion for reconsideration. He emphasized<\/a> that even unanimous Supreme Court decisions can be reversed and opposed dismissing the trial, warning it could undermine future impeachment processes.<\/p>\n

Sotto urged<\/a> the Senate to hold off on taking action until the SC rules on the House of Representatives’ motion for reconsideration. He emphasized<\/a> giving the Court a chance to correct what he described as clear and blatant errors in its decision, for the sake of justice and future proceedings.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo \u00a9 AMP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With 19 votes in favor, 4 against, and one abstention, the Senate \u201carchived\u201d the Articles of Impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte on August 6, 2025, in accordance with an earlier ruling of the Philippine Supreme Court (SC) that halted her trial. The unanimous SC ruling, delivered on July 25, 2025 by a 13-0-2 vote, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":9515,"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-11934","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\/11934","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=11934"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11989,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11934\/revisions\/11989"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}