SC to House, Senate: Respond to VP Sara Duterte petition vs impeachment
Vice President Sara Duterte (Composite image from Inquirer, AP file photos)
MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court (SC) gave the House of Representatives and the Senate 10 days to respond to the petition of Vice President Sara Duterte that challenges the validity and constitutionality of the 4th impeachment complaint that was eventually transmitted to the Senate for trial.
“The SC required respondents House of Representatives, its Secretary General Reginald S. Velasco, and the Senate to comment on the petition within a non-extendible period of 10 days from notice,” SC Spokesperson Atty. Camille Sue Mae Ting said in a press conference.
The petition which was filed on Duterte’s behalf by the Fortun, Narvasa and Salazar Law firm.
The petition seeks “judicial intervention” to “uphold due process and raise serious legal and constitutional concerns.”
The petition said the House of Representatives circumvented the one-year bar by ordering its Secretary-General “to allegedly give them more time to file the Fourth Impeachment Complaint, despite the fact that three prior separate impeachment complaints had been filed on December 2, 2024, December 4, 2024, and December 19, 2024, respectively.” the 36-page petition said.
Article continues after this advertisement“By directing the respondent House Secretary-General to freeze the first three impeachment complaints to make way for the fourth impeachment complaint, which was filed a month or two after, the House of Representatives committed grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack of excess of jurisdiction by circumventing and violating the One- Year Bar set by no less than the 1987 Constitution,’ it added.
Article continues after this advertisementThe fourth impeachment complaint was transmitted to the Senate after 215 members of the House endorsed it, while the three other impeachment complaints filed earlier had not been transmitted to the Office of the Speaker or taken up by a House committee and were later archived.
Duterte’s petition is separate from the petition filed by a group of Davao City-based lawyers led by Israelito Torreon and former Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board chairperson Martin Delgra III.
“The Court is still studying whether these cases should be consolidated. But as of now, no action,” Ting said.
“That is okay. It turned out that VP Sara filed her own petition a day ahead of our petition, hence, it is but natural that her petition would be first acted by the SC than our petition,” said Torreon.
