Sara Duterte's defense team arrives in Senate

Members of the defense team of Vice President Sara Duterte have started arriving at the Senate for the formal opening of the impeachment trial on Monday

Atty. Sheila Sison, who will lead the 16-lawyer defense team, arrived at the upper chamber at around 12:26 p.m. She was seen with lawyer Michael Poa, one of Duterte's legal counsels.

The Senate will convene as an impeachment court at 2 p.m.

According to Poa, the Vice President will not appear before the impeachment court and instead will be represented by her counsel.

Duterte is facing impeachment charges over allegations of culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust, bribery, and other high crimes. In May, she was impeached by the House of Representatives for the second time.

On May 18, the Senate convened as an impeachment court. On June 1, Duterte's camp filed its answer to the Articles of Impeachment, asking the court to junk the impeachment case against her. —AOL, GMA News