Sotto: Senate likely to tackle Duterte impeachment if SC reverses ruling

Metro Manila, Philippines - Senate Minority Leader Tito Sotto believes the Senate will address the archived impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte if the Supreme Court reverses its ruling on the case.

House prosecution panel spokesperson Antonio Bucoy on Saturday, Aug. 9, said the archival of the articles of impeachment added layers to the proceedings that could bring to a constitutional crisis.

“I doubt it,” Sotto said in a message to reporters on Sunday, Aug. 10. “Most of my colleagues [who] voted to archive acted as such because of the SC decision.”

Voting 19-4-1, the Senate moved to archive the articles of impeachment against Duterte, following the high court ruling voiding it. It ruled that the House of Representatives violated the one-year bar rule and due process.

The motion stemmed from Sen. Rodante Marcoleta’s original motion to dismiss the complaint. Sotto tried to block it by moving to table it, effectively setting it aside, but lost.

However, Marcoleta amended his motion to transfer the complaint to the archives instead after hours-long debates.

READ: Senate archives Duterte impeachment case 

“Therefore, if the SC decision reverses, then it’s logical that we address the Articles of Impeachment,” Sotto said.

“It’s either that or my colleagues lied, which I doubt,” he added.

The House of Representatives has filed a motion for reconsideration to the Supreme Court.

If the court does not rule in their favor, Bucoy said the House will comply. During a forum on Saturday, the lawyer stressed that the House will not cause the constitutional crisis.

New argument?

Meanwhile, retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Adolfo Azcuna presented a new argument against the controversial ruling on impeachment.

Azcuna, one of the framers of the 1987 Constitution, wrote on Saturday that the House did not violate the one-year bar rule since it did not initiate impeachment proceedings “more than once a year.”

The one-year bar rule is stipulated in Section 3, Subsection 5, Article XI of the Constitution.

His argument was that the Constitution does not say “more than one a year.”

“So more than once a year is more than one day a year since one day is the smallest unit of one year,” Azcuna said on Facebook. 

“The present case involves, even applying the new definition of initiating, four complaints initiated on one session day Feb. 5, 2025. The more than once a year rule is not violated here,” he argued.

Aside from the House, some of the citizen complainants from the first impeachment complaint against Duterte coalition filed a motion for reconsideration.

The coalition 1Sambayan, represented by retired SC justices Antonio T. Carpio and Conchita Carpio Morales and other lawyers, also sought to overturn the ruling, a state quo ante order, and oral arguments on the case.