Marcos: Special Senate session possible for Duterte impeachment

President Bongbong Marcos answers questions from the media during his visit at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport on January 30, 2025. | Photo by Morexette Marie Erram #CDNDigital

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Thursday that he would call a special Senate session to discuss Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment if requested. The impeachment was backed by his son, his cousin, and 213 House members.

Senate President Francis Escudero told reporters that the Senate received the impeachment articles late Wednesday, just as Congress adjourned for the midterm elections.

Escudero said that the Senate should be in session to convene as an impeachment court, but that the purpose of a special session to be called by the President was only for urgent legislative measures.

“Of course, when a special session is called, whether we agree or not, of course we will attend,” he said.

Senate ‘not ready’

Marcos said in a news conference that he could call a special session on the impeachment.

“If the senators ask for it, yes,” he said. “Again, they will be the ones to decide, not us. If the Senate President calls me up on the telephone, ‘I talked to the senators about having a special session.’ ‘Sure.’ I will do it. But if there’s no such request, it means that they are busy with something else. They are not yet ready.”

Former Bayan Muna Representatives Teddy Casiño and Neri Colmenares urged Escudero to stop passing the “ball” of Duterte’s impeachment and let the Senate perform its constitutional duty of convening an impeachment court “forthwith” after it receive the complaint from the House.

Only way out

Colmenares said the “only way out now” is for Marcos to call a special session “if only to address the demand of the Filipino people to proceed with the impeachment trial.”

Marcos, who had voiced his opposition to oust the Vice President, said that as Chief Executive, he had no “formal role” in the impeachment of his former ally who was the other half of the formidable Uniteam that won the 2022 national elections with a massive landslide.

He said, however, that he discussed the impeachment with his cousin, Speaker Martin Romualdez, and other congressmen. “But we’re at this stage. We can no longer avoid this,” he said.

The President said he tried to stop the plan to impeach Duterte. “But that didn’t work. It pushed through. So, we follow the process.”

He said that impeachment trial would have to proceed with the Senate acting as the court and the House serving as prosecutor.

“From this point on, I’m just a very interested observer,” the President said.

View ‘doesn’t matter’

Last year, the President remarked that Duterte—who bared a plan to have him assassinated—was insignificant in the larger scheme of things and that an impeachment would only distract lawmakers and won’t benefit a single Filipino.

“It doesn’t matter what I think at this point,” he said.

He doesn’t see the filing of the four impeachment complaints against Duterte as an act of “defiance” to his position.

“I don’t view that as defiance. I view that as expressing what they feel to be right,” Marcos said.

He said that there was the belief that he could order the lawmakers to do his bidding.

“You give me far too much credit,” he said. “We are independent of each other. Of course, we talk to each other about all kinds of things.”

Advice to son

His eldest son, Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos, was the first to sign the impeachment complaint. Romualdez was the 215th signatory.

The President said his son asked him for advice on the impeachment.

“I told him, ‘The process has already begun. So, it’s your duty now to support that process. So, do your duty.’ That’s what I told him,” he said. “‘Do your duty. You have to support the process. You are constitutionally mandated to carry out that process. And you’re a congressman, so do your duty.’”

“I didn’t know he’ll be the first to sign, though,” Marcos said. —WITH REPORTS FROM TINA G. SANTOS AND JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE