Senate adjourns without taking up VP Sara impeachment

The Senate didn't tackle the transmittal of the articles of impeachment by the House of Representatives on the last session day before Congress went on recess to make way for the campaign period for Eleksyon 2025.

Senate Secretary Renato Bantug Jr. said there was a need for "complete staff work" to go over the articles–something that was not finished before the Senate adjourned.

"As of this hour, I have yet to make my official report to the Senate President because as the secretary of the Senate, it is my duty to provide complete staff work to the Senate President and to all the members of the Senate," Bantug told reporters after the plenary session.

Bantug said he told House Secretary General Reginald Velasco that he and the House of Representatives secretariat staff would first go over the documents.

"The process earlier, it was ministerial on my part to receive the verified complaint, the annexes but after that–and I made it clear to the secretary general–that I have to perform staff work insofar as making sure that whatever the House transmitted is what the Senate also received," Bantug said.

Bantug said they only finished the "comparing and matching" of documents a few minutes after the Senate's plenary session.

Velasco arrived at the Senate around 4:47 p.m. or about an hour after the House of Representatives impeached Duterte to transmit to the Senate the verified impeachment complaint.

Bantug officially received the documents at 5:50 p.m. at his office.

According to the verified complaint approved by the House plenary, the complainants moved to impeach Duterte "based on the grounds of Culpable Violation of the Constitution, Betrayal of Public Trust, Graft and Corruption, and Other High Crimes."

As the 215 endorsers exceeded one-third of the House membership of 306, the complaint will go straight to the Senate as provided in the 1987 Constitution.

The Senate will serve as the impeachment court.

The impeachment complaint largely stemmed from the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability's inquiry on the use of confidential funds by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) under Duterte's leadership. 

Congress has adjourned sessions today to give way for the campaign on Eleksyon 2025.

They will resume sessions on June 2. –NB, GMA Integrated News