The Supreme Court has dismissed three consolidated petitions contesting the House of Representatives’ impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte, declaring the matter moot following the commencement of her trial in the Senate.
The high court clarified in an en banc ruling that issuing a decision regarding the House Committee on Justice’s handling of the complaints would serve no practical purpose, as the articles of impeachment have already been formally sent to the upper chamber.
“The SC further held that the impeachment process had already moved to the Senate, which had convened as an impeachment court and had begun proceedings,” the SC Office of the Spokesperson said on Wednesday.
“Any ruling on the validity of the actions taken by the House and its committee on justice would no longer affect the controversy,” it added.
While the decision effectively rejects the petitioners’ applications for a temporary restraining order, the tribunal emphasized that it did not pass judgment on the constitutionality of the House proceedings or the substance of the impeachment charges themselves.
On May 11, the House voted 257-25, with nine abstentions, to approve four articles of impeachment against Duterte, forwarding the documents to the Senate two days later. The Senate subsequently convened to open her impeachment trial on July 6.
The dismissed filings included an 186-page petition submitted in March by a group of pro-Duterte lawyers led by Israelito Torreon, which accused the House panel of grave abuse of discretion for advancing the third and fourth impeachment complaints.
Vice President Duterte later submitted her own 58-page petition claiming procedural violations, alongside a third separate challenge led by lawyer Hue Jyro Go, all of which were later consolidated by the court.
Prior to the vote, the House committee had dismissed an initial February 2 complaint due to the one-year constitutional bar on initiating multiple proceedings, while a second complaint was voluntarily withdrawn by its proponents to endorse the subsequent filings.
The panel eventually found the third and fourth complaints sufficient in form, substance, and grounds to establish probable cause for impeachment.