By Manny Mogato

(June 13, 2025)- Is Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial dead in the water after the Senate voted on a motion to return the complaint to the House of Representatives?

No, the impeachment trial is still alive after the Senate asked the vice president to respond to seven articles of impeachment filed by the lower house to remove her from office.

In short, Senators Robin Padilla and Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa failed to stop the impeachment process in the 19th Congress.

So, after the debates and theatrics in the Senate, Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial would proceed and may crossover to the 20th Congress, which will begin on July 28.

Padilla and Dela Rosa tried hard to convince their colleagues in the upper chamber to dismiss the impeachment complaint against the vice president without even weighing the evidence presented by the members of the House of Representatives sitting as prosecutors.

But they failed. They argued that the impeachment has to be decided by the end of the 19th Congress on June 30.

Thus, the impeachment complaint must be terminated.

Senator Francis Tolentino had a similar argument because he believes the 1987 Constitution was silent on the continuing process of an impeachment trial.

However, he was wrong. Constitutional and legal experts agreed that the impeachment trial can crossover to the next Congress.

Even President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. also believed the impeachment trial should continue in the next Congress.

The move to terminate the impeachment trial without weighing on the evidence to be presented in the Senate is unconstitutional.

Under the 1987 Constitution, the Senate must immediately start trial after the House of Representatives transmits the articles of impeachment.

The Senate violated the Constitution when the trial was delayed after the lower house sent the complaint in February.

It transgressed the Constitution once more when it remanded the complaints to the House of Representatives.
There is nothing in the Constitution that provides for the Senate to return the complaint to the House.

What will happen to the impeachment trial after the articles of impeachment are returned?

There is uncertainty. The House of Representatives refused to accept the articles of impeachment because it was unclear what the Senate wanted the House to do with it.

The congressmen do not know what the senators wanted. As far as they are concerned, they followed the law, and everything is in order. A total of 215 members signed the complaints.

Speaker Martin Romualdez also defended the articles of impeachment as legal and constitutional.

At the Senate, there is still no word when the impeachment court would convene after it legislative session ended this week.

But it has to convene to decide on the hanging issue. It is awaiting a response from the lawyers of the vice president.

Meanwhile, Sara Duterte’s lawyers filed a petition to the Supreme Court to stop the impeachment process, arguing that it has no basis.

In a supplemental petition, the lawyers asked the High Tribunal not to allow the trial to crossover to the 20th Congress.

Perhaps, both Houses of Congress would await a decision from the Supreme Court to proceed with the trial and carry over to the next Congress, or it could decide to end the trial by June 30.

Hopefully, the Supreme Court will decide soon on Sara Duterte’s lawyers’ petitions.

That would save the lawmakers from debates and proceed forthwith on the trial.

After all, Senate President Francis Escudero has taken his oath as the presiding officer of the impeachment court.

The Senate would need more than 19 days to conclude the trial with seven articles of impeachment.

In May 2012, it took the Senate more than four months to complete the trial of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona on only two articles of impeachment.

The Senate had only tried three impeachments.

Only Corona’s case was completed. Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez resigned, ending her trial while President Joseph Estrada’s trial was cut short by EDSA People Power 2 in January 2001.

What will happen when the trial resumes?

In all likelihood, the impeachment trial will proceed, and may crossover to the 20th Congress with seven new members – Vicente Sotto III, Panfilo Lacson, Bam Aquino, Francis Pangilinan, Erwin Tulfo, Camille Villar, and Rodante Marcoleta.

Five will return – Bong Go, Bato dela Rosa, Imee Marcos, Pia Cayetano, and Lito Lapid.

It appears Sara Duterte still has the numbers. He has six allies in the incumbent senators – Robin Padilla, Alan Peter Cayetano, Joel Villanueva, Jinggoy Estrada, Miguel Zubiri, and Mark Villar.

At least five will join the so-called Duterte bloc. She needed only nine votes to block a conviction.

However, when the trial begins and the evidence is presented. Public opinion might sway some senators to switch loyalties, looking ahead of the 2028 elections.

Evidence had surfaced last year during a series of public inquiries led by Manila Congressman Joel Chua, who chaired the House Committee on Good Government.

The committee had uncovered many juicy details of how the confidential funds were illegally disbursed and given to fictitious recipients.

There were other accusations detailed in the impeachment complaints, but the funds’ misuse alone is enough to convict Sara Duterte.

Her mysterious Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Networth (SALN) could also get her into trouble. If it is proven that she held billions of pesos in several bank accounts, she must prove that she earned it through legitimate and legal means.

Sara was a lawyer, but she never practiced. She immediately became vice mayor, but she couldn’t amass such a fortune in such a short period.

Probably, her allies in the Senate, Padilla and Dela Rosa, who served as Davao City’s chief of police when she was mayor from 2010 to 2013, were afraid that these details would be made public, shattering the glass ceilings that the Dutertes had built over the years.

They were never corrupt and lived simple lives in Davao City, different from imperial Manila-based politicians.

That myth catapulted the Dutertes to power, leading a cult-like following across the country, but particularly in Mindanao and the Cebuano-speaking areas in the Visayas.

In trying to stop the impeachment, Padilla and Dela Rosa were moved by selfish political interests and blind loyalty to Rodrigo Duterte, the former president, who would have to stay longer in The Hague, facing crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Padilla and Dela Rosa pin their hopes on Sara, believing she could win in the presidential elections in 2028.

They want to dismiss the complaint without any trial to save whatever reputation the Dutertes had. They are putting a cap on the genie’s bottle. Once open, they could not put it back. The dam of evidence will burst, and senators can’t go against the evidence and pubic opinion.

Sara may have the numbers, but, in the end she may only have Marcoleta and Marcos on her side.

The prosecutors could petition Padilla to inhibit in the trial because he already showed bias and acted as a lawyer for the vice president even before the trial.

Dela Rosa is in the same boat but an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) hangs over his neck. In the end, he could not participate and vote to acquit Sara.

Go has no good relations with Sara. If he is thinking of seeking the presidency in 2028, Sara is his chief rival. Putting her away in the equation would benefit him.

The others can be swayed by the evidence to be presented.

Thus, it would be early for Sara Duterte to rejoice.

The views expressed by the columnist do not necessarily reflect that of the media organization.