The Philippine Senate opened the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte on Monday, marking the first time a sitting vice president has faced trial before the chamber and the first time any Philippine official has been impeached twice.
The Senate convened as an impeachment court shortly after 2 p.m. with 21 of 24 senator-judges present, three short of a full bench. Sens. Jinggoy Estrada and Rodante Marcoleta were unable to participate due to plunder-related detention and arrest proceedings, while Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, a Duterte political ally, remains in hiding at an undisclosed location after the International Criminal Court unsealed a warrant charging him as an “indirect co-perpetrator” in murder over his role as national police chief during Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war.
The trial unfolds against the backdrop of the Duterte family’s broader legal troubles. Sara Duterte’s father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, has been held in ICC custody in The Hague since his March 2025 arrest, with his own crimes-against-humanity trial now scheduled to begin November 30, 2026.
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Read: ‘I Am Responsible’: Duterte Acknowledges Drug War Role as ICC Detention Begins
The session’s first order of business turned contentious before the trial even reached opening statements. Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero, nominated by Sen. Panfilo Lacson, was elected presiding officer by a 12-8 vote over the objections of the Cayetano-led minority bloc, which argued the Senate President should preside by default.
The dispute stems from the chamber’s broader leadership turmoil, since former Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano was ousted in a June 3 quorum vote before Sherwin Gatchalian became acting Senate president.
Duterte herself did not appear. Her legal counsel, Michael Poa, told reporters the vice president chose to appear through her lawyers rather than in person, exercising a right explicitly available to her under the impeachment court’s rules. Malacañang responded by suggesting Duterte should address the allegations before the Senate directly rather than through public statements made outside the proceedings.
House prosecutors used their opening statement to set an aggressive tone. Lead prosecutor and Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro argued Duterte had betrayed the public trust through alleged violence, threats to kill the president, and misuse of public funds, and outlined the order in which the four articles would be presented, starting with the assassination-threat charge, followed by misuse of confidential funds, bribery of Department of Education officials, and unexplained wealth. Panel spokesperson and Kabataan Party-list Rep. Renee Co said the sequencing was meant to underscore that “impunity is not acceptable.”
The scale of the proceeding points to a long fight ahead. Senate President Gatchalian’s pre-trial order, issued June 29, lays out 92 trial days, 62 for House prosecutors and 30 for the defense, running Mondays through Wednesdays at 2 p.m. through July 28, before shifting to 3 p.m. following President Marcos’s State of the Nation Address.
Roughly 3,250 police officers were deployed to the Senate premises alone as part of a broader security operation, and local news reported brief tension between protesters and officers outside.
Duterte faces four articles of impeachment: misuse of confidential and intelligence funds, unexplained wealth, bribery of Department of Education officials, and grave threats against Marcos and his family. She denies all four.
Conviction on any single article requires 16 of the Senate’s 24 votes and would remove her from office immediately, with permanent disqualification from holding future public office, a consequence that would end her widely expected 2028 presidential run before it starts.
