Akbayan files motion vs Sara's petition to junk impeachment

Rep. Perci Cendaña (Akbayan Party-list) filed a motion to intervene on Friday, July 25, before the Supreme Court on the petition of Vice President Sara Duterte to dismiss her impeachment.

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Nearly half a year has passed since Duterte was impeached by 215 members of the House. The vice president immediately defended herself by filing a petition asking the high court to nullify the impeachment based on allegations that the complaint lodged was unconstitutional.

She argued that the impeachment violated the one-year bar rule, where only one proceeding against the same impeachable public official can be launched in a year — assuming multiple complaints couldn’t be filed.

There were three impeachment complaints filed with the Office of the Secretary General before the filing of at least one-third of the lower chamber was initiated. Cendaña was the one who endorsed the first complaint filed by civil society groups in December 2024.

It has been made clear, time and again by legal luminaries and the House prosecution panel, that the mere filing of an impeachment complaint does not constitute the initiation of a proceeding unless it is done by at least a third of the House or has already been referred to the Committee on Justice.