The Senate has yet to receive any pleading from the House of Representatives on its certified impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte.
Senate President Francis Escudero, who sits as presiding judge of the impeachment court, said all communications regarding the impeachment should be submitted through pleadings and not through a press conference or through social media.
The House on Wednesday night adopted Resolution No. 2346, certifying that the impeachment proceedings initiated on February 5, 2025 against Duterte fully complied with the law, including the one-year bar provided under the Constitution.
The certification came after the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, voted Tuesday to remand the complaint to the House amid concerns that it may have violated the one-year ban on impeachment proceedings.
The first three complaints were filed in 2024, while the fourth complaint, which was transmitted to the Senate, was filed in February 2025.
“This is not the time for tempers to rise, to be irritable, or to get angry. What’s important is that the process is being followed and upheld,” Escudero said.
For his part, former Senate President Vicente Sotto III said senators who failed to follow impeachment trial rules should be ashamed of themselves.
Sotto, who will join the Senate in the 20th Congress, said the senator-judges should not have introduced motions as these are best left to the defense or prosecution panel.
“The Senate is the impeachment court. No motion from any judge should be entertained. You are the judge. If you do that (introduce a motion), you look like you are acting as a counsel for either the defense or the prosecution,” he told dzMM.
“Have the prosecutors presented the articles of impeachment for them (senator-judges) to say that there are infirmities?” Sotto added.
Bayan Muna chairman Neri Colmenares said the Senate’s decision to remand the impeachment complaint was unconstitutional.
“This is a clear ploy to buy time and avoid public scrutiny,” he said in a statement. “If they want to clarify something from the House, they should ask it during the start of the impeachment trial.”
“As to facts, the House is not only presumed to abide by the constitutionality of the Articles of Impeachment but it has transmitted the Articles and has consistently defended its constitutionality and their readiness to prosecute it. There is therefore no factual basis for even asking the House to certify its constitutionality.”
