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Vice President Sara Duterte attends her office's first budget hearing with the House appropriations committee on August 28, 2024.
House of Representatives / Released
MANILA, Philippines — Several universities have joined calls urging the Philippine Senate to proceed with the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
In separate statements, the deans of five Ateneo law schools across the country and the University of Santo Tomas (UST) urged the Senate to immediately commence the impeachment trial of Duterte, citing its constitutional duty to act on impeachment cases without delay.
The Ateneo law schools’ deans emphasized that public office is a public trust and that accountability “cannot and should not be overridden by obfuscating technicalities.”
According to the deans, the framers of the Constitution prioritized the integrity of public service, establishing it as both a constitutional principle and a state policy.
“As advocates of the rule of law, we submit to the supremacy of the Constitution as the fundamental law of the land. As such, faithful obedience to the constitutional mandates is requisite and mandatory; hence, not discretionary and optional,” the deans said.
“It is what we have all subscribed to when we ratified the Constitution. It is what we are being called to observe and obey now,” they added.
They called for a fair, impartial, and speedy disposition of the case, emphasizing that such a process would not only uphold public office accountability but also respect due process, as enshrined and mandated in the Constitution.
“Once the impeachment trial commences, and beyond political colors and affiliations, we likewise urge and call on the Philippine Senate to remain impartial and non-partisan to ensure that the constitutional guarantees of due process and equal protection of the laws of the respondent are respected and safeguarded,” the deans’ statement read.
Veritas. In a social media post, UST also released a statement urging the Senate to proceed with the impeachment trial.
“Respect the Constitution. Fulfill the duty. Forthwith Proceed,” UST’s statement read.
On the last line of its statement, it wrote “veritas,” the Latin word for truth.
Other schools
Other universities also called on the Senate to proceed with the impeachment trial, emphasizing the continuing nature of the Senate.
In a statement dated June 5, law professors from the University of the Philippines College of Law expressed “grave concern” over proposals to declare Duterte’s impeachment de facto dismissed.
They argued that the alleged violations cited in these proposals “are unsupported by factual developments and a proper reading of the Constitution.”
This comes amid a circulating proposal within the Senate to dismiss the impeachment complaint against Duterte, which Senator Bato Dela Rosa acknowledged originated from his office.
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On June 6, the De La Salle University (DLSU) also called for the immediate commencement of the impeachment trial.
“The impeachment process is not merely a political exercise; it is a sacred mechanism enshrined in the 1987 Constitution to ensure that the highest public officials remain answerable to the people they serve,” DLSU said.
“Any attempt to suppress this process undermines the pursuit of truth, and the very foundation of democracy, the rule of law, and the principle that no one is above the law,” it added.
