Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero said Tuesday, August 25 that he is hopeful the impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte will be completed before the end of the year, as the Senate prepares to begin deliberations on the 2027 national budget.

Escudero gave the assurance after Senator Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri sought guidance on the timeline of the impeachment trial, noting that the proceedings could overlap with the Senate’s busy budget season.

Zubiri said senators and their staff would have to juggle the impeachment proceedings with committee hearings and deliberations on the proposed 2027 national budget, which could extend to Thursdays, Fridays and even Saturdays.

“Are we going to finish this before the December break?” Zubiri asked, saying senators needed to know whether the impeachment proceedings would continue until February so they could make the necessary adjustments to the legislative calendar.

Zubiri also pointed to the workload of the Senate Finance Committee, which will handle the budget deliberations, saying its chairman had expressed concerns about managing the hearings alongside the impeachment trial.

In response, Escudero said he was “optimistic and hopeful” that the impeachment proceedings would be completed before the end of the year.

However, he said the Senate would have to wait for the Finance Committee’s schedule for the budget deliberations before finalizing a more specific calendar for the impeachment proceedings.

“Given that is the most important piece of legislation that the Senate, as a legislative body, is supposed to pass, we have to allocate enough time for that to ensure its passage before the end of the year,” Escudero said.

He added that the Senate must also consider the bicameral conference committee process and the inputs from the House of Representatives through the General Appropriations Bill.

Escudero said that once the budget calendar is finalized, the Senate can determine whether the impeachment schedule would have to be adjusted and, if so, how and when the changes would be made.

Zubiri earlier said senators needed an impeachment calendar that would allow both the impeachment proceedings and the legislative agenda to proceed without disrupting each other.