Senate minority demands start of VP Sara impeachment trial

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III (File photo: Senator Koko Pimentel/Facebook)

By Wilnard Bacelonia, Philippine News Agency

MANILA – The Senate minority bloc on Monday made a unified and forceful appeal on the Senate floor to immediately convene as an impeachment court and begin the trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, denouncing months of delay as a betrayal of constitutional duty.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III raised a question of privilege, warning that the Senate’s inaction since receiving the articles of impeachment on Feb. 5 has sparked public distrust and suspicion that the trial is being deliberately stalled or even quietly abandoned.

“Respected academic institutions and legal organizations have spoken with one voice: the Senate must comply with its constitutional duty to ‘forthwith proceed’ with the impeachment trial,” Pimentel said, citing public statements from the UP College of Law, San Beda Graduate School of Law, Ateneo School of Government, and other institutions.

He said the constitutional language is unequivocal.

Article XI, Section 3(4) of the 1987 Constitution states that once the House transmits the articles of impeachment with a vote of one-third of its members, “trial by the Senate shall forthwith proceed.”

“The word ‘forthwith’ means without delay, agad-agad (immediately). There is no ‘if,’ no ‘unless,’ no ‘when convenient,'” Pimentel said.

In a parallel manifestation, Senate Deputy Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros seconded the minority’s formal motion, insisting that the Senate President must now take his oath as presiding officer and administer the oath to all senators as judges of the impeachment court.

“The Constitution is clear. The trial must begin immediately. Walang pag-iimbot. Agad-agad (Without self-interest. Immediately),” she declared, adding that “anyone who objects to commencing the trial is objecting to the Constitution itself.”

Hontiveros said retired Supreme Court Justice Adolfo Azcuna, a framer of the Constitution, explicitly defined “forthwith” as “immediately and without unreasonable delay.”

She also warned that compressing the trial into just three days, after months of delay, would mock the gravity of the charges and the integrity of the process.

The impeachment complaint accuses Duterte of grave offenses, including betrayal of public trust, culpable violation of the Constitution, conspiracy to commit murder, misuse of confidential funds, and unexplained wealth.

Pimentel said the Senate had already lost four months without a valid justification.

“We had a choice every step of the way —and our choice was to delay,” he said.

Pimentel urged the chamber to immediately suspend legislative business and convene as the impeachment court, citing precedents that distinguish the Senate’s legislative and non-legislative functions.

“There is no constitutional requirement that impeachment trials can only happen when Congress is in session. The Senate’s authority comes directly from Article XI,” he said, citing the Supreme Court ruling in Pimentel v. Joint Committee of Congress, which upheld the validity of non-legislative functions beyond session periods.

The minority’s motion includes concrete steps: swearing in the Senate President as presiding officer, placing senators under oath as judges, calendaring the trial, and issuing a writ of summons to the Vice President.

Pimentel cautioned that failure to act would deepen the erosion of public trust in the Senate.

“Trial is the most fair course of action. Let the evidence be heard. Let the Vice President defend herself. That is what the Constitution demands,” she said.