Senate-SC Tag Team Trash All Future Impeachments

GOTCHA

- JARIUS BONDOC

The Senate and Supreme Court acted like a tag team. As in pro wrestling, they took turns thrashing VP Sara Duterte's impeachment.

For "pampalubag-loob," the Senate and SC said the House can file a new impeachment rap when the one-year bar ends on Feb. 6, 2026.

But it's unknown how long the SC will take to review itself. It can go beyond Feb. 6.

Meantime, its decision stays—including its "unconstitutional" seven new rules on impeachment:

Those new rules easily can thwart a genuine impeachment.

For one, an ally of VP Sara can beat the clock by filing a frivolous case at 12:00:01 a.m. of Feb. 6. A lawyer did that twice before for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Or, if a real rap manages to sneak in, only one out of 317 congressmen can void it by claiming he never received or understood the complaint and evidence.

The tag team delayed action since February. Senate President Francis Escudero defied constitutional duty to commence trial "forthwith." The SC sat on lawyer Catalino Generillo's Feb. 14 plea to compel the Senate to act.

Constitutional framers, law school deans, professors, religious leaders, ex-generals, and civil society howled.

Grudgingly, on June 10, senators convened as impeachment court. To downplay the silliness of three senator-judges' motion to dismiss the Articles of Impeachment, they voted 18-5 to "remand" it to the House.