Senate says trial to start in 20th Congress

The Senate sitting as an impeachment court remanded the impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte to the House of Representatives amid legal questions raised by Senator Ronald dela Rosa.

The impeachment court also issued a writ of summons to the Vice President for her to answer the impeachment case filed against her within a non-extendable period of 10 days upon receipt of the order.

Dela Rosa originally sought to have the impeachment complaint dismissed even before going to trial, prompting Senate President Francis Escudero to convene the impeachment court Tuesday evening, a day earlier than the original June 11 schedule, to address the motion.

Dela Rosa said the one year ban on impeachment proceedings may have been violated with the first three complaints filed in 2024, and the fourth complaint, which was transmitted to the Senate, filed in February 2025.

To break the impasse on Dela Rosa’s motion, Senator Alan Cayetano offered a compromise — to amend the motion and have the impeachment complaint remanded to the House of Representatives instead.

“I cannot in conscience, as a lawyer and as a senator-judge, just make that rush decision that it violated the one-year ban,” Cayetano said. 

With 18 affirmative votes, five negative votes, and no abstention, the senator-judges moved to send back the impeachment complaint to the House of Representatives.

The senator-judges said the House should certify that the impeachment did not violate the one-year rule and let the 20th Congress decide how to proceed.

With this, today’s presentation of the Articles of Impeachment by House prosecutors has been effectively cancelled.

Duterte filed in February a petition for certiorari and prohibition with urgent application of temporary restraining order and/or writ of preliminary injunction before the Supreme Court.

She said the House committed grave abuse of discretion by “deliberately” not acting on the first three impeachment complaints.

She said they also violated the constitutionally mandated one-year ban when the fourth complaint was signed on February 5.

Earlier in the day, Senate President Francis Escudero said regardless of developments, the impeachment trial will begin in the 20th Congress.

“We don’t have enough time now. It’s not our fault. The House chose to file it in the last days—the last hour of our last day in session—when they knew we only had two weeks left,” he said.

“Trial will commence once the 20th Congress starts,” even as the Senate sitting as an impeachment court has already convened, he added.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was of the same opinion that the impeachment trial will cross into the 20th Congress as there is simply not enough time to finish it before June 30.

“It is very clear that it will (cross to the 20th Congress) because there is no way that even if they start the trial now, that they will finish it before the new senators come in. Again, the senators will decide,” Mr. Marcos, a former senator, said in an interview at the Palace.

Two senators-elect—Bam Aquino and Panfilo Lacson—pledged to uphold the rule of law once they assume the responsibility as senator-judges in the 20th Congress.

In a statement, Aquino said he is extending “parliamentary courtesy” to incumbent senators in the 19th Congress to do what needs to be done, so the Senate as an impeachment court can transition to the 20th Congress where he will be serving.

“The Senate as an institution has a duty to try the case and render a judgment. As I have said before, we are ready to fulfill our duties and responsibilities as senator-judges,” he added.

Lacson expressed hope that the 20th Congress will provide a fair judgment once the trial is transferred.

In hindsight, he said the Senate “could have spent its time better on the legislative agenda instead of debating on petty matters, if ego was set aside and the impeachment court was allowed to convene immediately.”

Lacson added that if the impeachment court had been convened as initially scheduled on June 2, the Vice President would have had the chance to contest or argue her case.

“We will be judged by the people who will also see the evidence presented. Filipinos may not be lawyers but they can discern, especially in this day and age of modern information and communications technology. So, the senator-judges have an obligation not to the Senate leadership or the Vice President, but to the people. After all, we got our mandate from them,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III earlier warned that any attempt to dismiss the impeachment proceedings before trial would be “unconstitutional.”

“That’s absolutely wrong. You’re a legislative body, yet you want to dismiss your duty as a court? We’ve been given a mandate: To conduct a trial. We can’t just wash our hands of it and dismiss the case simply because it’s easier,” he said.

On Monday, the Vice President’s defense team said in a statement they were “ready to confront the charges and expose the baselessness of the accusations.”

As this developed, members of civil society, academic and religious groups continued with their three-day protest action that started Monday and will culminate today, calling on the Senate to ensure that justice is served.

In a separate statement, the head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, noted the “solemn mandate” of the Senate was not a matter of political convenience.

“The search for truth is not a political agenda; it is a moral imperative,” David said. “Let conscience guide your actions. Let the truth take its course.”

“To delay, dismiss, or ignore such a process for reasons of political convenience is to betray the Constitution and the people’s trust,” said David, who is also the bishop of Kalookan.

Human rights defenders also asked the Senate to stop “dribbling” the impeachment trial against the Vice President.

Edgar Cabalitan, Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA) secretary general, said: “There is a lot of fuss, too many dribbles and fooling around. The people simply want to put Duterte on trial and let the truth come out.”

“If the Senate is serious about accountability, it must beat the clock and stop dribbling. Every delay weakens the public’s trust and embolden. The truth must be heard, and the Filipino people deserve nothing less,” he added. With AFP and Rio Araja