The Senate impeachment court stands as the only remaining venue where the case against Vice President Sara Duterte will be settled, House prosecutor and Bicol Saro party-list Rep. Terry Ridon said Wednesday, after the Supreme Court threw out every petition that had sought to derail the proceedings.
Ridon, one of 11 lawmakers on the House prosecution panel, framed the ruling as the collapse of the legal arguments Duterte’s allies had leaned on for months. In his view, the dismissals strip away the challenges that had been mounted to slow or void the impeachment.
“The only fight for truth and accountability is now in the Senate Impeachment Court,” he said. “We have high confidence that at the end of this battle, truth, accountability and the people will prevail.”
The prosecutor said the outcome should silence a line of attack the defense has used repeatedly. “As a result of this decision, all talk regarding the mini-trial and the fishing expedition—which the Vice President’s camp has repeatedly used as propaganda—has come to an end,” he said in Filipino.
Sitting en banc, the high court dismissed the consolidated petitions on the ground of mootness. As Rappler and other outlets reported, the justices found the issues no longer required resolution because the House had already approved and transmitted the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate, meaning the House actions the petitioners wanted stopped were already complete.
The petitions had come from two directions. Duterte’s own filing contended that the complaints against her breached the constitutional one-year bar on impeachment and that their referral was defective, having been handled by the rules committee rather than the full chamber. A separate March petition, led by lawyer Israelito Torreon and other Duterte-aligned attorneys, sought a temporary restraining order and argued the House justice panel had overstepped during its initial hearings.
The trial in the Senate has been underway for a month and is now on its 13th day. Duterte, who was abroad when the ruling came down, had not issued a statement as of Wednesday.
