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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider SC affirms with finality unconstitutionality of 2025 impeachment complaint vs VP Sara Duterte

SC affirms with finality unconstitutionality of 2025 impeachment complaint vs VP Sara Duterte

Published Jan 29, 2026 03:05 pm
The Supreme Court (SC), in a unanimous resolution, denied with finality the motion filed by the House of Representatives (HOR) to reconsider the decision that declared unconstitutional the 2025 impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte.
In a press briefer, the Office of the Spokesperson said that the SC affirmed that the fourth impeachment complaint transmitted to the Senate, as impeachment court, on Feb. 5, 2025 against Duterte was already barred by Article XI, Section 3, subsection (5) of the Constitution.
The SC resolution that denied the HOR’s motion was declared immediately executory and no further pleadings will be entertained by the High Court.
In its July 25, 2025 decision written by Senior Associate Justice Marvic M.V.F. Leonen, the SC also ruled that the impeachment complaint violated the right to due process enshrined in the Bill of Rights.
But the SC clarified in its decision that “it is not absolving Vice President Duterte from any of the charges against her, but any subsequent impeachment complaint may only be filed starting Feb. 6, 2026.”
Among the articles of impeachment against Duterte in 2025 were alleged malversation of P612.5 million in confidential funds, bribery and corruption, unexplained wealth and failure to disclose assets, and involvement in extrajudicial killings.
The SC’s press briefer issued on Thursday, Jan. 29, clarified the following points:
First, the first three impeachment complaints filed in accordance with the first mode of initiating an impeachment, that is Article XI, Section 3, subsection (2), were not placed in the Order of Business within the required 10 session days.
Session days as used in Article XI, Section 3, subsection (2) or for purposes of the first mode of initiating an impeachment complaint does not mean legislative session days. A session day for purposes of Article XI in the Constitution was given its plain and ordinary sense, which the Court interprets to mean a calendar day in which the House of Representatives holds a session.
Second, the Court reiterated Gutierrez v. House of Representatives. However, it further elaborated that an impeachment complaint filed in accordance with the first mode of impeachment, Article XI, Section 3, subsection (2), is deemed initiated for purposes of the one-year bar in Article XI, Section 3, subsection (5) when: (a) a properly verified and endorsed impeachment complaint is referred to the Committee on Justice; (b) a properly verified and endorsed impeachment complaint is not placed in the Order of Business of the House of Representatives within 10 session days, or referred to the Committee on Justice after it has been put in the Order of Business within three session days as required by Article XI, Section 3, subsection (2) of the Constitution; or (c) no Articles of Impeachment are transmitted to the Senate before the House of Representatives adjourns sine die. This means that the initiation of an impeachment complaint must occur during the term of Congress.
Third, the Court affirmed the power of the House of Representatives to promulgate its own Rules on Impeachment. However, it clarified that Section 2 of the House Rules, as it is currently worded, requires the referral to the Committee on Justice even when filed through the second mode. The second mode is provided in Article XI, Section 3, subsection (4) of the Constitution, where the endorsement of at least one-third of the members of the House of Representatives would be sufficient to transmit the Articles of Impeachment.
At the same time, the SC said that in view of the current wording of Section 2 of the Rules on Impeachment as drafted and promulgated by the House of Representatives in its 19th and 20th Congress, the House may—optionally upon its own prerogative—refer an impeachment complaint already endorsed by at least one-third of all its members to the Committee on Justice only for the following purposes:
(1) to ensure that the endorsement of the members of the House is verified;
(2) to confirm that the evidence supporting the grounds in the complaint exists, and that every member of the House has been given a copy of the complaint, as well as the evidence supporting it; and
(3) to respect the Committee’s prerogative to consolidate different formulations of the complaint, if any, so that only one complaint is endorsed to the plenary for transmittal to the Senate.
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