No court jurisdiction lost in Sara Duterte impeachment case - Escudero

MANILA, Philippines— The impeachment court  does not lose its jurisdiction over the case against Vice President  Sara Duterte even after it was sent back to the House of Representatives, the court’s presiding officer said on Wednesday.

Voting 18-5 on Tuesday, the Senate impeachment court returned to the House of Representatives the Articles of  Impeachment against  Duterte “without dismissing nor terminating the case.”

"No one said that jurisdiction was lost — please read Alan's motion," Senate President  Francis “Chiz” Escudero said in press briefing, referring to Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano.

That is also my appeal to our five colleagues who keep talking about its dismissal," he added.

The five are Senate Minority Leader  Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, Sens. Risa Hontiveros, Grace Poe, Nancy Binay and Sherwin Gatchalian.

"It says there without dismissing, without terminating,', so, the impeachment court retains its jurisdiction, to my mind, that’s why we issued summons,” Escudero pointed out.

Despite its decision on Tuesday to send the articles of impeachment back to the House of Representatives, the  court directed Duterte to answer the case against her within a non-extendible period of 10 days from the receipt of writ of summons and the copy of the complaint.

“How can we issue summons of we do not have jurisdiction? And remember, the order issuing came after the vote. I think this is quite clear, even to young lawyers, or even young law students,” Escudero pointed out.

After issuing the writ of summons to Duterte, however, Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa inquired if it was correct “to assume that technically we don’t have the jurisdiction of this Articles of Impeachment  already because we return it?”

"So why would we continue issuing a subpoena to the respondent if we’ve already returned it? Maybe if it’s sent back to us, that’s when we can start summoning or issuing a summons," Dela Rosa said.

"Because technically, we no longer have jurisdiction over the Articles of Impeachment since we returned it to them, so they are no longer with us. What, then, will be our basis now,? he added.

Hontiveros debunked this, noting such a claim was an admission that the phrase  “without dismissing or  terminating the complaint” was a lie.

"The Articles are with us now, and yet here we are taking action to lose jurisdiction — and even the summons to be issued by the presiding officer, they want to take that away from the impeachment court," she said.

"So you see, Mr. President, brick by brick, stone by stone, this impeachment trial process is being dismantled, along with the impeachment complaint itself. This is a great disservice to our duty under the Constitution."

It was  Dela Rosa who originally moved to  dismiss the impeachment proceedings against Duterte but it was later amended by Cayetano.

/gsg

(2025/06/11-15:37)