Manila — Citing procedural lapses, the Philippine Supreme Court has declared the impeachment process unconstitutional, stopping the Senate from holding a trial next month.
However, the court’s spokeswoman, Camille Ting, clarified it did absolve Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio from any wrongdoing she is facing.
‘The Court said it is not absolving Vice President Duterte from any of the charges against her, but any subsequent impeachment complaint may only be filed starting
February 6, 2026,’ Ting told reporters in a briefing.
A new impeachment process can be initiated against the vice president in February next year.
Lawmakers and the public protested the court’s decision, claiming judicial overreach and calling for Congress to assert its independence as a co-equal body.
Some senators who voiced opposition said the trial must proceed, threatening to ignore the court’s decision.
Speaker Martin Romualdez said the House of Representatives would file a motion for reconsideration to reverse the unanimous decision of the court.
The court unanimously threw out the impeachment trial, with 13 justices voting to bar the impeachment trial. One justice was on leave, and another chose to abstain from the case.
“The SC has ruled that the House impeachment complaint versus VP Sara Duterte is barred by the one-year rule and that due process or fairness applies in all stages of the impeachment process,” Ting said, announcing the court’s decision.
She said there were four complaints filed against the vice president at the House of Representatives.Â
The first three did not materialize, and she was impeached on the fourth complaint after one-third of the House members signed the complaint.
The SC ruled that when the House did not act on the first three complaints, they were already considered terminated or dismissed; therefore, they had been archived and deemed terminated on February 5, 2025.Â
The one-year bar rule in the 1987 Constitution states that “impeachment proceedings [cannot] be initiated against the same official more than once within one year.”
The court favored Duterte’s argument, where she claimed that the one-year bar rule was violated because House Secretary General Reginald Velasco did not “immediately” refer the verified impeachment complaints to the Speaker, as mandated by the rules of the lower chamber.
“Our fundamental law is clear, the end does not justify the means…there is a right way to do the right things at the right time,” Ting said.
The vice president filed a temporary restraining order in February, a few days after Congress impeached her.
A group of Mindanao-based lawyers. Filed a similar but separate petition.
Meanwhile, the Senate delayed the vice president’s trial, citing the 2025 midterm elections. It planned to resume the impeachment process after the opening of the 20th Congress, and set August 4 as the start of the proceedings.