Lacson Sotto to reopen VP Sara impeachment if Supreme Court reverses ruling

Trisha Anne Segumban

Senators Panfilo “Ping” Lacson and Vicente “Tito” Sotto III vowed to revive the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte if the Supreme Court (SC) grants the House of Representatives’ motion for reconsideration and overturns its ruling declaring the proceedings unconstitutional.

Lacson said that if the high court reverses its decision, he and Sotto will move to take the case from the Senate archives for deliberation.

“If someone objects and we lose in the voting, I will recall their explanation in archiving the impeachment,” Lacson said in an interview over radio DZBB.

He said he hopes senators will respect the SC’s final ruling on the case.

On August 6, the Senate voted 19 in favor, four against, and one abstention to archive the articles of impeachment against VP Duterte.

Lacson abstained, saying it was out of respect for the SC’s order to Duterte to comment on the motion for reconsideration instead of dismissing it outright.

He said the order indicated that the justices wanted to review the case based on its merits.

Lacson added that the impeachment complaint is “dead” for now but can be revived with another round of debates and voting.

Legal experts have criticized the SC decision for adding seven new requirements to initiate an impeachment complaint that are not in the 1987 Constitution or in jurisprudence.

The Makabayan bloc warned in its own motion for reconsideration that the ruling could make it more difficult to hold public officials accountable.

Veteran lawyer Antonio Bucoy said the decision makes impeachment “more akin to passing through the eye of the needle.”

The University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law faculty said in an open letter that impeachment trials themselves constitute due process and that additional procedural rules undermine accountability.

The SC has yet to decide on the motion for reconsideration, which will determine whether the case remains archived or moves to trial.