Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III made it clear on Monday: the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte will stay as it is — archived — until the Supreme Court makes its move.
Fresh from taking over the Senate leadership from Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero, Sotto explained that everything now hinges on the high court’s ruling on the pending motions for reconsideration. These motions seek to overturn the SC’s earlier decision that junked Duterte’s impeachment as unconstitutional.
“Wala pa, walang gagalawin do’n until malaman natin kung anong sinasabi ng Supreme Court,” Sotto told reporters in an ambush interview.
(There are no changes. We won’t act on it until we know what the Supreme Court says.)
In August, under Escudero’s watch, the Senate voted to send the impeachment articles to the archives after the Supreme Court struck them down.
At that time, Sotto, still the minority leader, argued that the Senate should have waited for the high court’s ruling on the motion filed by the Office of the Solicitor General on behalf of the House of Representatives. Several other motions for reconsideration remain pending before the SC.
For now, the fate of the impeachment case rests entirely on the Supreme Court’s next decision — and the Senate is standing still until that comes.
