RAPPLER | Published February 19, 2025
There are now at least three petitions filed with the SC related to Duterte’s impeachment
MANILA, Philippines – Vice President Sara Duterte has filed a petition with the Supreme Court (SC) asking the High Court to block her impeachment trial.
The vice president, who faces an ouster from office following her impeachment by the House of Representatives, filed a petition for certiorari and prohibition on Tuesday, February 18. SC spokesperson Camille Sue Mae Ting confirmed the filing on Wednesday.
A certiorari petition asks a court to review another body’s decision or to review it if there’s grave abuse of discretion. If granted, it can overturn a decision or order.
In her petition, the vice president also asked the SC to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) and/or writ of preliminary injunction. If issued, a TRO may block an order from being implemented.
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SOURCE: www.rappler.com
https://www.rappler.com/philippines/sara-duterte-petition-supreme-court-block-impeachment-trial/
RELATED: Supreme Court may tackle petition to compel Senate to start Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial
Vice President Sara Duterte holds a press conference with the media at the Office of the Vice President in Mandaluyong City on February 7, 2025. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News
ABS-CBN NEWS | Published February 18, 2025
MANILA — The Supreme Court said it could tackle during its regular en banc session on Tuesday the petition to compel the Senate to immediately start the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
“The case was raffled today and will possibly be included in tomorrow’s agenda, along with other petitions, SC Spokesperson Atty. Camille Ting said in a statement.
The petition for mandamus was filed by lawyer Catalino Generillo, Jr. last Friday, arguing that the Constitution mandates that the Senate conduct the trial “forthwith” or immediately.
Generillo said in the petition that senators “are not suffering from any kind of disability, physical or mental” that would keep them from convening an impeachment court and “forthwith conduct public trial to determine whether the Vice President is guilty or not.”
Earlier this month, Vice President Sara Duterte was impeached by the House of Representatives in relation to her alleged misuse of public funds and her statements supposedly threatening the lives of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., First Lady Liza Marcos and House Speaker Martin Romualdez.
The articles of impeachment however were filed at the Senate just hours before it adjourned its plenary session until June 2, 2025.
Senate President Francis Escudero has said Duterte’s trial will probably not begin until after May’s midterm elections — or finish before the next congress takes over in July.
If convicted in the Senate trial, she would be barred from running for future public office.
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SOURCE: www.abs-cbn.com
RELATED: Poll campaign not reason to delay VP Duterte impeachment trial – lawyer
Lawyer Romulo Macalintal. –INQUIRER.net file photo
THE PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER | Published February 18, 2025
MANILA, Philippines — Campaigning is “not a reason to delay” the impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte, as the 1987 Constitution mandates the trial “shall forthwith proceed” once the impeachment was filed in the upper chamber, according to election lawyer Romulo Macalintal.
Macalintal likewise said that campaigning would not be a “valid excuse for the present Senate to pass on to the new Senate its constitutional duty” to forthwith or immediately start without delay the proceedings.
“The fact that half of the 24-sitting Senators are ‘already busy campaigning’ for the 2025 elections is not a reason to delay the impeachment proceedings against Duterte because campaigning is not part of the job description of any senator whose term of office has not yet expired,” he said in a statement on Sunday.
“Campaigning is not a valid excuse for the present Senate to pass on to the new Senate its constitutional duty to forthwith start the said impeachment case because the incoming senators of the new Congress are not bound by the acts and deliberations of their predecessors,” he added.
Macalintal argued that if the case should be taken up by the Senate under the 20th Congress, then “it is doomed to fail.”
“This is so because the very rules of the present Senate, (Section 123, Rule XLIV) provide: All pending matters and proceedings shall terminate upon the expiration of one Congress, but may be taken up by the succeeding Congress, as if presented for the first time,” the lawyer explained.
“Can’t the present Senate understand? Its own rules mandate that this impeachment case against Duterte, which is now in the Senate’s hands will be deemed terminated meaning, it will die its natural death upon the expiration of the present Congress on June 30, 2025,” he further noted.
And if the case is indeed handled by the upcoming Senate, Macalintal pointed out that the case will be treated “as if it was filed the first time.”
“Hence, a violation of the constitutional provision: No impeachment proceedings shall be initiated against the same official more than once within a period of one year,” he said.
“The sterling opinion of Supreme Court (SC) Justice Antonio Carpio, which was fully quoted by the SC in deciding the 2008 consolidated cases of Garcillano vs. HOR and Javier vs. Senate, cannot be ignored in that ‘it is optional on the Senate of the succeeding Congress to take up such unfinished matters, not in the same status, but as if presented for the first time,’” the lawyer added.
Last February 6, Senate President Francis Escudero said that holding an impeachment trial “legally cannot be done” as the complaint was not referred to the plenary to establish a basis for convening the impeachment court by the Senate, which had been serving as a legislative body.
Escudero explained that for an impeachment court to be convened, there would have to be an ongoing session in the chamber. He said this would allow impeachment judges to take their oath.
He said this will happen on June 2 once the session resumes after this year’s midterm elections.
On February 5, the lower chamber confirmed that 215 lawmakers signed the fourth impeachment complaint against Duterte.
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SOURCE: www.newsinfo.inquirer.net
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