Palace urges Senate to be fair in VP Sara’s impeachment trial

MALACAÑANG on Tuesday urged the Senate to act fairly when it receives the impeachment articles against Vice-President (VP) Sara Duterte-Carpio, underscoring that no exemptions should be made in holding officials accountable.

Palace Press Officer Clarissa A. Castro said President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. won’t intervene in the chamber after it elected a new leader on Monday, which coincided with the House of Representatives’ vote to remove Ms. Duterte from office.

“Well, everything that happens in the Senate is — it is within their power, it is within the authority to decide on all matters within the Senate, so, the President will not interfere in whatever decision the Senate makes,” she told a briefing in mixed English and Filipino.

Senator Vicente C. Sotto III was ousted on Monday as the chamber elected Senator Alan Peter S. Cayetano as the new Senate president, raising questions over the chances of the impeachment trial against Ms. Duterte.

“I don’t want to say that the Palace is for the holding of the trial,” Ms. Castro said, citing Mr. Marcos’ corruption crackdown in flood control projects.

“He said that everyone who must be held accountable should indeed be held accountable. So, this impeachment trial cannot be exempted or treated as an exemption, because if someone must answer for their actions, then they should be made to answer.”

Voting 257-25-9, the House on Monday approved the articles of impeachment, which accused Ms. Duterte of misuse of public funds, betrayal of public trust, corruption, and plotting to assassinate Mr. Marcos, First Lady Marie Louise Araneta-Marcos, and former Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez.

This far exceeds the one-third vote needed for the articles to be transmitted to the Senate.

“The House of Representatives made a decision and apparently saw the evidence — they even said that more members agreed to impeach the Vice-President for a second time, likely based on the documents or evidence they reviewed that could justify impeachment,” she said in Filipino.

“And hopefully, when this reaches the Senate, our senators will judge fairly, because this is ultimately for the people.”

Ms. Duterte was first impeached in February 2025 with the endorsement of 200 congressmen, allowing the chamber to send the charges directly to the Senate for trial without hearings. The ouster bid, however, died in the Senate which archived the complaints after the Supreme Court’s ruling that declared the proceedings unconstitutional.

Meanwhile, a group of law deans and professors called on the Senate to proceed with the impeachment trial of Ms. Duterte and urged state cooperation with international legal bodies involving Senator Ronald “Bato” M. dela Rosa, citing constitutional accountability and the rule of law.

In a statement released on Monday evening, the legal educators lauded members of the House who voted to impeach Ms. Duterte, saying the move was based on the “factual and legal” grounds cited in the report of the House Committee on Justice.

The signatories also criticized what they described as attempts by some senators to delay the impeachment process, including the change in Senate leadership before the transmittal of the articles of impeachment and the interpretation of the constitutional term “forthwith.”

The group said the Constitution leaves the Senate with no option but to convene as an impeachment court once the articles of impeachment have been transmitted.

They argued that the trial should proceed “as a matter of course” under Article XI, Section 3 of the Constitution.

“Refusal of public officers to perform a duty imposed by law, particularly by the Constitution, constitutes dereliction of duty that is administratively actionable and conferring an undue advantage and benefit on a person not entitled to it is an indictable criminal offense under Republic Act No. 3019,” part of the statement read.

They also urged law enforcers to cooperate with international legal proceedings “so that, in case the State should so decide in accordance with the relevant provisions of Republic Act No. 9851, Mr. Bato dela Rosa be made to stand trial before the International Criminal Court at The Hague.”

Among those who signed the statement were retired Supreme Court Justice Adolfo S. Azcuna, San Beda Graduate School of Law Dean Ranhilio C. Aquino, and law professors and deans from San Beda University, Adamson University, Lyceum of the Philippines University, Holy Name University, the University of Asia and the Pacific, and Misamis University.

The group said the rule of law requires all public officials to carry out their constitutional responsibilities without delay. — Erika Mae P. Sinaking and Chloe Mari A. Hufana