CITIZEN VIGILANCE A coalition of advocates, academics and youth leaders launch “BantayImpeachment” in Quezon City on June 13, vowing to keep the Vice President’s Senate impeachmenttrial under close watch. The scrutiny has started with calls on the newSenate leadershipnot to put Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero back as the court’s presiding officer. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
As senators get back on track following a short-lived but tumultuous Senate leadership, a broad coalition of activist groups and concerned individuals warned on Friday that designating Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero as the presiding officer of the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte could “melt” the credibility of the chamber’s new majority.
Escudero is well-remembered as last year’s Senate president who refused to start “forthwith” Duterte’s trial after the House impeached her in February 2025. His move stalled the trial until it was finally aborted in July when the Supreme Court ruled that Duterte’s impeachment was unconstitutional.
READ: Group: Escudero as impeach trial lead may impact Senate credibility
The civil society groups and mass organizations said they recognized the “tactical considerations” in the Senate majority’s plan but expressed “serious concern” over it.
They said that among the options available to the Senate in overseeing the trial, installing Escudero as presiding officer was “perhaps the most imperfect and one of the most dangerous.”
“At a time when the Senate must restore public confidence in its independence and credibility, elevating Escudero to this crucial role risks achieving the opposite,” they said.
Emerging ‘consensus’
Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson said last Wednesday that there was “consensus” among the new majority senators—who formally ousted Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano as Senate president—to designate Escudero, a lawyer, to preside over the impeachment trial this year.
Senate President Sherwin “Win” Gatchalian, who is not a lawyer, said the plan wasn’t final and there would be further discussions about it. He pointed out that the Senate rules assigned to him, as Senate president, the task of presiding over the trial.
President Marcos on Friday was not concerned over Escudero’s possible designation as the impeachment trial presiding officer, but he also expressed support for whoever would be finally chosen by the senators.
He noted that the impeachment rules adopted by the Senate were written by Escudero for last year’s trial.
Mr. Marcos pointed out that Duterte’s trial was halted by the Supreme Court. “And that had nothing to do with Senator Chiz,” he said.
Escudero, 56, ran as a candidate of the Nationalist People’s Coalition party in the 2022 national polls. He was also supported by Duterte, the “Uniteam” running mate of Mr. Marcos. Duterte broke ties with the President and became one of his staunchest critics.
Legal background
The activist coalition said that the argument that Escudero’s legal background qualified him to perform the role of presiding officer was “unconvincing.”
“An impeachment trial is not merely a legal exercise; it is a constitutional and political process that demands public trust in the neutrality of those who oversee it,” they said. “The impeachment trial is a defining test for the Senate and for Philippine democracy.”
The groups that signed the statement against the Senate majority’s plan included 1Sambayan, August Twenty One Movement (Atom), Student Council Alliance of the Philippines, Youth Against Kurakot, Pandayan Para sa Sosyalistang Pilipinas and Prayer Battalion.
Four articles
Among the individuals opposed to Escudero as impeachment trial presiding officer was Fr. Flavie Villanueva, one of the recipients of the 2025 Magsaysay Awards who has been aiding families of victims of the drug war of the Vice President’s father, ex-President Rodrigo Duterte.
Duterte was impeached for the second time on May 11. She will be tried on charges detailed in four articles of impeachment for culpable violation of the Constitution, bribery and graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust and other high crimes.
Article I alleges that Duterte misused up to P612.5 million in confidential funds allocated to the Office of the Vice President and Department of Education (DepEd) from late 2022 to 2023.
Article II accuses her of accumulating unexplained wealth disproportional to her lawful income as a public official and of not disclosing all her assets.
Article III is for bribery and graft and corruption for allegedly giving out monetary gifts and secret payments to officials of DepEd when she was the education secretary, before she broke away from President Marcos.
Article IV pertained to her own public disclosure that she had contracted an assassin to kill Mr. Marcos, first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and former Speaker Martin Romualdez.
Both agree on date
Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro, the head of the House prosecution team, said on Friday that one thing that both the prosecutors and Duterte’s lawyers “aligned” on during their first pretrial conference on Thursday was to start the impeachment trial on July 6.
“It was confirmed,” she said during an online interview with reporters.
Luistro said the pretrial conference would resume on June 22 as the prosecution was unable to finish marking all the voluminous documents submitted.
A pretrial conference is intended to streamline the impeachment trial and prevent unnecessary delays once it begins.
A June 9 Senate impeachment court notice directed the two sides to do several tasks for this purpose, including stipulating facts, identifying the witnesses who would testify, marking evidence, setting trial dates and raising other matters to promote a fair and expeditious trial.
The stipulations and the list of witnesses are finished, Luistro said.
She said the heated debates between the two sides were normal during pretrial conferences when two opposing sides argue.
Sara’s mindset
Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, a spokesperson for the prosecution team along with Kabataan Rep. Renee Co, said that the defense’s pretrial brief suggested that Duterte’s mindset was of someone who believes that she is beyond the reach of the law.
At a press briefing last Thursday, Adiong noted her refusal to properly respond to the allegations or present defense evidence. This reeks of disrespect for the impeachment court, he said.
“At the end of the day, as Cong. Renee said, if you don’t give at least respect to the court by explaining to the court what really happened, as you are supposed to do, then the explanation is either you are not serious or you really feel that you don’t owe people any explanation,” he said.
Adiong said that if accountability mechanisms like the impeachment applied to all high-ranking officials, it should apply to Duterte as well.
“It speaks about how they think that they are way beyond the reach of the law. It also speaks about the kind of mindset that—I’m sorry to say—that the Vice President feels, you know, she thinks…,” Adiong said. “This is an act of someone who thinks that she’s beyond reproach.” —WITH REPORTS FROM LUISA CABATO AND INQUIRER RESEARCH
