Carpio: Senate should proceed with Sara impeachment trial if SC reverses decision

The Senate should automatically proceed with hearing the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte should the Supreme Court reverse its decision, retired Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said over the weekend.

According to Carpio, the proceedings should continue if the Supreme Court rules in favor of the House of Representatives regarding its motion for reconsideration.

“Wala nang botohan ‘yan because balik tayo doon sa ‘Is this Constitutional?’ Sinabi ng Supreme Court ngayon, kung mag-reconsider sila, ‘Yes, Constitutional,’ so balik doon sa provision—The same shall constitute the Articles of Impeachment and trial by the Senate shall forthwith proceed,” he said in a report by Mav Gonzales on GMA’s “24 Oras Weekend” on Sunday.

(There’s no more voting on that because we go back to the question ‘Is this Constitutional?’ The Supreme Court now says that if they reconsider, ‘Yes, it is Constitutional,’ so we return to the provision—The same shall constitute the Articles of Impeachment and trial by the Senate shall forthwith proceed.)

This comes after the Supreme Court ruled that the Articles of Impeachment against Duterte were unconstitutional, and barred by the one-year rule.

The Senate has since voted to transfer the Articles of Impeachment against Duterte to the archives, with 19 votes for the matter, four against, and one abstention.

GMA Integrated News Research has found that a bill that was archived during the 15th Congress—involving the synchronized elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM)—but was later revived and passed into law.

The public is also now awaiting the SC decision on the motion for reconsideration filed by the House of Representatives, saying it should be allowed to perform its exclusive duty to prosecute an impeachable official, and the Senate’s to try to the case.

If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the House of Representatives, Carpio said there is no need for a Senator to file a motion to revive the Articles of Impeachment.

“Wala na. Of course, they will debate. Let’s say, the majority will say ‘No, we will not revive it,’ akyat ang prosecution sa Supreme Court. Sasabihin nila, ‘Dapat ba i-approve pa ito ng majority ng Senate bago mag-revive o sundin na lang natin ‘yung specific command of the Constitution—trial by the Senate shall forthwith proceed. I think klaro naman ‘yung Constitution,” he said.

(That’s it. Of course, they will debate. Let’s say the majority says, ‘No, we will not revive it,’ the prosecution will elevate it to the Supreme Court. They will ask, ‘Should this still be approved by the majority of the Senate before being revived, or should we just follow the specific command of the Constitution — trial by the Senate shall forthwith proceed.’ I think the Constitution is clear.)

Three impeachment complaints were filed against Duterte in December 2024, all of which were connected with the alleged misuse of confidential funds. The fourth impeachment complaint, endorsed by over one-third of lawmakers from the House of Representatives, was later on transmitted to the Senate.

Duterte, for her part, entered a “not guilty” plea in the verified impeachment complaint filed against her, which she called merely a “scrap of paper.” — BM, GMA Integrated News