Senator Erwin Tulfo pressed his colleagues on the impeachment court to remember why the tribunal was assembled in the first place, warning that some senator-judges were turning the proceedings into a platform to answer for their own affairs rather than to weigh the case against Vice President Sara Duterte.
His intervention came during the July 20 session, one of several sharp exchanges among the senator-judges over what belongs inside the courtroom and what does not. Tulfo questioned whether unrelated grievances had any place in a body constituted solely to hear the charges against the vice president, arguing that the trial was not the venue for members to clear their own names. He specifically flagged remarks by Senator Robin Padilla, who had brought up his own obstruction of justice case while the Duterte matter was before the court, according to the Inquirer’s live coverage.
Not every member agreed on where the line should sit. Senator Alan Peter Cayetano countered that matters bearing on the standing of the court and its judges were fair game, telling the chamber that the integrity of the tribunal and those who sit on it is never off-topic. The disagreement drew a procedural response from presiding officer Senate President Francis Escudero, who ruled that concerns falling outside the scope of the Duterte trial would be taken up once the Senate returned to its regular session.
The friction over conduct unfolded alongside the day’s substantive business. House prosecutor Chel Diokno defended the prosecution’s move to obtain Duterte’s bank, Bureau of Internal Revenue and Anti-Money Laundering Council records, telling Senator Pia Cayetano that the request did not amount to a fishing expedition and that the impeachment complaint laid out enough to justify it.
Duterte was impeached by the House of Representatives in February 2025 on allegations that included the misuse of public funds and threats against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. A conviction carries lifelong disqualification from public office, a stake that shadows a vice president widely expected to seek the presidency in 2028.
