The Senate has reserved three committee rooms solely for legislative work so that budget deliberations and other hearings can proceed even while the impeachment court is in session, according to Senate Secretary Renato Bantug, who also serves as Clerk of Court for the proceedings.
That arrangement, Bantug explained in a Saturday, June 27 interview on DWIZ, is meant to ease an anticipated collision between the chamber’s judicial duties and its legislative calendar. A trial stretching across several months would run into the Senate’s budget season, forcing senators to juggle both roles at once.
The scale of that overlap depends on how long the trial of Vice President Sara Duterte ultimately runs. Bantug placed the outer estimate at 92 trial days — a figure that, if reached, he said would mark the longest impeachment trial the country has seen. That projection combines the prosecution’s request for as many as 62 trial days to lay out its evidence with the defense’s estimate of roughly 30 more.
“Kung aabot talaga tayo ng 92 trial days, ‘yan ang magiging pinakamahaba nating impeachment trial so far,” Bantug told reporters.
Proceedings are set for three days each week. Bantug said he had not yet worked out the precise total span, since the 92 projected days would be spread across those weekly sessions. Under the current schedule, the court convenes Mondays through Wednesdays at 2 p.m. leading up to the week before the State of the Nation Address, with Thursdays set aside for motions. The pattern then moves to Tuesdays through Thursdays at 2 p.m. once the SONA has passed.
How the evidence and witnesses will be presented — and the projected trial dates supplied by each side — will be spelled out in the Senate’s pre-trial order, Bantug said.
“Nakapaloob po ‘yan. Yung order of presentation, nandoon na po ‘yan, plus yung projected trial dates na sinabi naman ng mga partido kung makakailang trial days ang kanilang kakailanganin para matapos ang kanilang presentation of evidence,” he said.
Senator JV Ejercito, who heads the Senate Finance Committee, voiced a similar worry, pointing out that budget hearings frequently take up whole days and stretch late into the evening.
“Kaya kung aabutin man yung impeachment sa budget hearings, magiging challenge talaga yung pag-schedule at yung pagpatuloy ng mga budget hearings,” Ejercito said.
Ejercito said he hoped the trial would wrap up before budget work reaches its peak, leaving the chamber free to concentrate on the proposed national spending plan.
For Bantug, the competing demands are something the Senate is prepared to manage. “Yan ang hamon, yan ang challenge pero handa naman tayong harapin ‘yan,” he said.
