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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Escudero as impeachment court presiding officer not yet final, says Gatchalian

Escudero as impeachment court presiding officer not yet final, says Gatchalian

Published Jun 18, 2026 12:50 pm  |  Updated Jun 18, 2026 02:01 pm

At A Glance

  • Sen. Sherwin Gatchalin said the issue of electing Sen. Francis "Chiz" Escudero as presiding officer in the impeachment trial would still have to be discussed by all of the senators.
  • The new Senate chief said that under the rules, it's the Senate President who will preside, "unless the Senate will decide otherwise."


The Senate has yet to decide on whether to elect Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero to be the presiding officer in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.

Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian made the remark in a press briefing at the Senate on Thursday, June 18, saying the proposal to elect Escudero as presiding officer of the impeachment court still has to be discussed by all senators.

Gatchalian said he will call for an all-senators caucus before the impeachment trial proper begins.

“I don’t want to preempt the presiding officer discussion. That would still have to be discussed by the senators,” Gatchalian told reporters during the press briefing.

“Because under the rules, it’s the Senate President who will preside, unless the Senate will decide otherwise,” he said.

“So I don’t want to preempt our discussion. We will have a discussion on that. But right now, as it stands in the rules, I will preside,” the new Senate chief said.

On Wednesday, Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson disclosed that there is already a consensus that Escudero will be the presiding officer when the impeachment court starts the trial proper of the vice president. But he also said, that consensu may still change.

“As per our consensus this morning, we will elect Senator Chiz (Escudero) if we convene as impeachment court,” Lacson told reporters in an interview.

He, however, denied that this was part of the deal for Escudero to leave the bloc of Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano.

Lacson said Escudero’s experience as the presiding officer when the Articles of Impeachment were transmitted to the Senate last year was taken into consideration by the majority.

Though Escudero convened the impeachment court last year, a majority of the senator-judges decided to remand the case to the House of Representatives.

The impeachment trial of the vice president was also stalled and the Articles of Impeachment back then ended up in the archives after the Supreme Court junked it for violating the one-year bar rule.

Alan Cayetano, Gatchalian’s predecessor, then convened the impeachment court on May 18, setting the court calendar for pretrial conference to start today (Thursday, June 18) and trial proper on July 6.

Lacson had said the majority plan to elect Escudero as the presiding officer of the impeachment court on July 6.

Related Tags

VP Sara Duterte impeachment Sherwin Gatchalian impeachment trial
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