Speaking from The Hague, Netherlands, Vice President Sara Duterte offered a measured response after the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to impeach her for the second time — delegating all matters to her legal team and saying she had no emotional reaction to the outcome.
“I have no feelings about the impeachment. A spokesperson and defense team have already been assigned for the impeachment. And that is a legal process. So, we’ll just leave it to the spokesperson and the lawyers to comment,” she said.
The House voted 257-25, with nine abstentions, to send her case to the Senate for trial. The articles of impeachment were transmitted the same night — Wednesday, May 13 — with House Secretary General Cheloy Garafil delivering the documents to Senate Secretary Mark Llandro Mendoza at around 7:20 p.m.
The handover was not without incident. Officers of the Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms, accompanied by armed Philippine Marines, fired shots inside the building shortly before the delivery. The boxes were formally turned over by 8 p.m.
Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano said the upper chamber would not delay the trial. Sen. Imee Marcos had earlier pressured the House to move faster, dismissing explanations about reproducing documents as inadequate. “The excuse that the House is still reproducing ‘voluminous documents’ is flimsy, unacceptable and difficult to take seriously. The House has dozens, if not hundreds, of personnel at its disposal, backed by full administrative, legal, records, printing and information-technology support,” she said.
Bicol Saro party-list Rep. Terry Ridon defended the chamber’s timeline, noting the Constitution sets no fixed deadline for transmittal. He cited the Supreme Court’s ruling that voided the first impeachment as grounds for extra care. “This is why we are being more cautious in making sure that all the SC guidelines have been religiously complied with, along with the due process requirements,” he said.
Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal warned that the trial’s outcome — not its start — is what bears watching. Writing in an opinion sent to The Philippine Star, he said Duterte’s team would likely file a motion to dismiss embedded in her formal answer to the charges. “The real issue we must monitor is not whether the trial begins, but how it might be resolved,” he wrote. Passing such a motion would require only 13 senators — a simple majority.
On a separate front, Duterte’s husband Manases Carpio expanded his criminal complaint at the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office to include SEC Chairman Francis Edralin Lim and Insurance Commission Commissioner Reynaldo Regalado, alleging all three AMLC council members authorized the public disclosure of his and his wife’s private financial records during an April 22 House hearing. Both officials, in reply-letters cited in the filing, said the council acted within its legal mandate — which Carpio argued confirms the disclosure was a collective decision.
