Duterte impeachment: Petition to stop trial filed at SC
Vice President Sara Duterte during the Committee on Appropriations hearing on the proposed 2025 budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP). SCREENGRAB FROM HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES VIDEO
MANILA, Philippines — Mindanawon lawyers filed on Tuesday a petition before the Supreme Court (SC) to stop the impeachment complaint filed against Vice President Sara Duterte.
The petition for certiorari and prohibition seeks to issue a temporary restraining order and declare the impeachment complaint null and void.
The petition to stop the Duterte impeachment trial was filed by lawyers Israelito Torreon, Martin Delgra, James Reserva, and Hillary Olga, among others.
Torreon is also the legal counsel of alleged qualified trafficker and detained senatorial candidate Apollo Quiboloy.
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According to an advisory, the petition “questions the impeachment process arising from the said complaint considering that the initiation of the same was procedurally defective, constitutionally infirm and jurisdictionally void.”
Meanwhile, SC spokesperson Camille Ting on Monday said that a petition urging the high tribunal to compel the Senate to “immediately” begin Duterte’s impeachment trial might be included in its en banc session on Tuesday.
It was filed last February 14 by lawyer Catalino Generillo Jr., a former special counsel of the Presidential Commission on Good Government.
Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero previously said that the Duterte impeachment trial would begin after the fourth State of the Nation Address of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in July.
Escudero also said he had no plan to request a special session to tackle the impeachment.
The Senate adjourned its session on February 8 and will resume it on June 13. The Senate will be adjourned again from June 14 to July 27.
READ: House impeaches Sara Duterte, fast-tracking transmittal to Senate
The House of Representatives impeached the vice president on February 5, with 215 lawmakers voting in favor of the impeachment.
The lawmakers backing the complaint officially reached 240 after the session.
The complaint was then sent to the Senate for trial on the same day.
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