A proposal that could have reshaped the pace of Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial collapsed on July 29, 2026, after her defense team declined to sign on — a quiet procedural decision that carries real weight for how the case unfolds in the coming months.
Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian said the defense rejected a proposed alternating presentation of evidence, article by article, that the prosecution had endorsed just two days earlier. With the proposal off the table, the House prosecution proceeded with Article I, the charge covering Duterte’s alleged misuse of P612.5 million in confidential funds, as originally scheduled.
Under the trial’s standing format, the prosecution must finish presenting all four Articles of Impeachment before the defense mounts its own case. The alternating setup would have changed that, pairing each side’s evidence on a single article before moving to the next. Prosecutors had backed the idea in a three-page manifestation dated July 27, arguing it would make for a more orderly and focused trial by letting the court weigh each charge as a self-contained unit.
Gatchalian had said last week that the format could speed up the proceedings and make them easier for the public to follow, since the defense could answer the prosecution’s evidence immediately rather than revisiting it months later. Court spokesman Reginald Tongol said that had the defense agreed, presiding officer Francis Escudero could have canceled the Article I hearing and had the defense open on Article IV — the grave threats charge — as soon as the following Monday.
That did not happen. By declining, the defense left Article IV, which accuses Duterte of threatening to have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and then-Speaker Martin Romualdez killed, to be answered only after the prosecution works through the remaining articles — a rebuttal now likely months away.
Tongol noted the format would not have produced a faster verdict in any case. Under Senate impeachment rules, all four articles must be tried before the senator-judges vote, and that vote is taken article by article. A guilty verdict on even one article is enough to convict and remove Duterte from office.
