Vice Pres. Sara Duterte Gives Short Message at the Senate
SARA DUTERTE – The Vice President appeared in the Senate for the meeting with her legal team and not to attend the impeachment trial.
The impeachment trial of Vice Pres. Duterte has officially started. On Monday, July 6, 2026, the senator-judges voted for the presiding officer of the impeachment court. With a 12-8 voting, Sen. Chiz Escudero was elected as the presiding officer of the impeachment court in the impeachment trial of Duterte.
The Vice President is faced with several allegations. Four (4) impeachment raps were previously filed against her before the House of Representatives and two (2) of the complaints were declared substantial in form, substance, and grounds. Here are some of the grounds raised against Duterte:
- Alleged culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes in amassing and converting the amount over PHP 500 million confidential funds (CF) allocated to the Office of the Vice President from 2022 to 2023
- Alleged culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes in amassing and converting the amount of not less than PHP 112.5 million of confidential funds allocated to the Department of Education (DepEd) for the year 2023
- Alleged culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust by corrupting and bribing officials of the DepEd
- Alleged culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes in contracting to murder or assassinate the president, the first lady, and the former speaker of the House
- Alleged culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust in amassing unexplained wealth and failing to disclose all her properties and interests in properties in her SALN
- Alleged culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust in committing acts of political destabilization and the high crimes of sedition and insurrection
On Monday, 12 senators from the majority bloc backed Escudero to be the presiding officer of the impeachment court. He was also the presiding officer of the court during the first impeachment proceedings against Duterte before. The senators who opposed his election as the presiding officer are all his former colleagues in the former majority bloc.
Affirmative
- Senate Pres. Sherwin Gatchalian
- Senate President Pro Tempore Tito Sotto
- Senate Majority Leader Migz Zubiri
- Sen. Panfilo Lacson
- Sen. Kiko Pangilingan
- Sen. Bam Aquino
- Sen. Risa Hontiveros
- Sen. Joel Villanueva
- Sen. Erwin Tulfo
- Sen. Raffy Tulfo
- Sen. JV Ejercito
- Sen. Lito Lapid
Negative
- Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano
- Sen. Pia Cayetano
- Sen. Loren Legarda
- Sen. Bong Go
- Sen. Imee Marcos
- Sen. Mark Villar
- Sen. Camille Villar
- Sen. Robin Padilla
Recently, prior to the second impeachment proceedings set today, Vice Pres. Sara Duterte appeared at the Senate. Based on News5, the Vice President came not for the impeachment trial but for the meeting with her legal team.
Vice Pres. Sara Duterte gave a very short statement to the press while she was at the Senate as per the post. According to Duterte, her lawyer does not allow her to answer questions.
“In this bloodbath and bludgeoning, I will be bloodied but unbowed,” Duterte said.
Amid the recent impeachment proceeding, while the minority bloc opposes the election of Escudero as the presiding officer, Sen. Robin Padilla revealed to using Google’s help in understanding impeachment legal terms as he expressed his side on opposing the election of the former Senate President.