SC: Senate acted timely on first VP impeach case

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April 30, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate “acted in a timely manner” in its handling of the first impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte in 2025, according to the Supreme Court (SC).

In a statement yesterday, the high tribunal announced that through a vote of 14-0-1, it dismissed the petition for mandamus filed by one Catalino Aldea Generillo Jr. that sought to compel the Senate to immediately convene as an impeachment court to try Duterte.

A group of Duterte allies, meanwhile, called on the SC once again to stop the impeachment hearing by the House of Representatives justice committee, this time claiming it was unconstitutional to hold the proceedings while Congress is in recess.

The petition for mandamus was already considered “moot and academic” since the high court had declared as unconstitutional the impeachment proceedings against Duterte – specifically for violating the constitutional one-year bar rule in the filing of impeachment complaints – in a decision in July 2025 and a resolution in January 2026.

“Since no Articles of Impeachment remained, the SC had no reason to order the Senate to convene as an impeachment court,” the SC noted in a decision written by Associate Justice Rodil Zalameda.

Also, the SC could not apply its power of judicial review in ruling against the mandamus petition, because “as a co-equal constitutional body, the Senate’s exercise of its duties is beyond the SC’s power of review, except in cases of grave abuse of discretion.”

However, the SC ruled that the Senate – led by Sen. Francis Escudero at the time – “acted on the impeachment complaint in a timely manner,” as it treated Generillo’s petition as one that sought to “determine whether the Senate acted unlawfully or abused its discretion when it did not convene immediately as an impeachment court during its session break.”

“While the Constitution requires the House of Representatives to act within a certain number of session days on an impeachment complaint, it does not specify a fixed timeframe for the Senate to start an impeachment trial. It simply provides that the trial ‘shall forthwith proceed,’ leaving the timing to the Senate’s discretion,” said the high court.

It added the word “forthwith” indicated in Article XI, Section 3(4) of the 1987 Constitution meant “within a reasonable time, which may be longer or shorter, depending on the circumstances of each case,” thus “allowing the Senate to make the necessary preparations to convene as an impeachment court.”