House files motion to reverse SC ruling on Sara Duterte impeachment
House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez confirmed that the motion for reconsideration was filed through the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), emphasizing that the move was not meant to challenge the Court's authority but to uphold constitutional processes.
'With utmost respect for the Constitution, in defense of institutional balance, and in the name of the Filipino people whom we are sworn to represent, the House of Representatives today filed a Motion for Reconsideration before the Supreme Court of the Philippines,' Romualdez said in a video message.
'This is not an act of defiance or disrespect. It is an exercise in constitutional stewardship—an affirmation that every branch must act with fidelity to the Charter that gives us all our power,' he added.
Romualdez maintained that the Constitution grants the House the exclusive power to initiate all impeachment proceedings, a power he said the Supreme Court disregarded in its ruling on G.R. No. 278353.
'Let us be clear: The Constitution says: 'The House of Representatives shall have the exclusive power to initiate all cases of impeachment.' That power is not shared. Not subject to pre-approval. And not conditional,' he said.
He cited the SC's own precedent in Francisco v. House of Representatives, saying the decision affirmed that only one impeachment may be initiated against the same official within a year, and that initiation begins with either a one-third endorsement or referral to the House Committee on Justice.
On July 25, Supreme Court spokesperson Camille Ting announced the High Court's decision voiding the articles of impeachment sent to the Senate, citing a violation of the 1987 Constitution's one-year bar rule.
The articles stemmed from the fourth impeachment complaint against Duterte, which was endorsed and signed by 215 House members on February 5, 2025. The complaint accused Duterte of misuse of confidential funds, threats against government officials, and possible constitutional violations.
The complaint was immediately transmitted to the Senate, fulfilling the constitutional requirement that mandates a Senate trial once a complaint gains support from at least one-third of House members.
Earlier, two petitions were filed before the Supreme Court seeking to stop the impeachment proceedings, including one from a group of Mindanao-based lawyers who argued that the House failed to act on earlier complaints within the required 10 session days.
The House, however, maintained that it met the constitutional deadline and clarified that 'session days' should not be confused with 'calendar days' or 'working days.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arabian Post
2 hours ago
- Arabian Post
Trump Plan To End Free Elections In 2026 Midterm And 2028 Presidential Revealed
By Mark Gruenberg NEW YORK—The Trump administration and its radical right foot-soldiers in the federal government and in the states are undertaking a comprehensive scheme to undermine future state and federal elections, in effect rigging the rolls to keep themselves in power no matter what the voters decide. So far, other than the report itself, by the Brennan Center for Law and Justice at New York University, there's been little—or little-noticed—response. The comprehensive scheme is detailed in a combination of a Trump executive order on March 25 and the notorious SAVE Act, a GOP voter repression law that would disenfranchise at least 21 million people, most of them women—the voters most likely to oppose the Trump-right-wing-corporate agenda. Detailed and footnoted protests were aired by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) to the GOP-run House Administration Committee and by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights—whose members include the AFL-CIO—to the GOP-run Senate Rules and Administration Committee. And states have gone to court to try to block Trump, the Brennan Center adds. 'A president has no right to rewrite the country's election rules or regulate federal elections on his own,' the center's report says. 'As a federal court recently put it, 'The Constitution vests none of these powers in the president.' In issuing the order, the president claimed extraordinary unilateral authority to regulate federal elections and usurp the powers of Congress, the states, and the (U.S.) Elections Administration Commission, an independent, bipartisan federal agency.' Protecting U.S. elections, at all levels, from partisan manipulation, is now and has been for more than a century, important to workers, union, and non-union. One, as AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler often points out, is that the GOP Trump regime views organized labor as a key roadblock to its partisan and repressive agenda. And the best way to crush labor is to crush workers' right to vote. And, second, and just as important, restricting who can vote, and who cannot, centralizes power in the hands not just of Trump but of the corporate interests that back him and who turn a blind eye—or worse–to repression both at the workplace and at the ballot box. After all, paraphrasing the late UAW President Walter Reuther, what is won at the bargaining table can be taken away by the stroke of a pen. The elements in the right wing's coordinated attempt to entrench itself in power go far beyond what Trump tried in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. Trump lost it to Democratic nominee Joe Biden, and knew it. But he tried to overturn the results in lawsuits and other intimidation in selected swing states—and went 0-for-62 in court cases. When that failed, he turned to aiding and abetting the Jan. 6, 2021, Trumpite invasion, insurrection, and attempted coup d'etat at the U.S. Capitol. But now the Trump right-wing playbook to undermine and rig coming elections is much more extensive and much more under the radar, the Brennan Center reports. It includes: Attempting to rewrite election rules to burden voters and usurp control of election systems. Targeting or threatening to target election officials and others who keep elections free and fair. Federal officials, at the Justice Department, had an important role in countering disinformation and combating racial discrimination. This federal protection for fair elections may no longer exist. Supporting people who undermine election administration by putting them on state and local elections boards. Retreating from the federal role of protecting voters and the election process by defunding agencies Congress established to safeguard the vote and ensuring the Federal Elections Commission, already hobbled by a years-long deadlock, remains toothless. Giving a 'go' signal to future violence to overturn elections, by Trump's pardons of the January 6 insurrectionists. The Brennan report leaves out one tactic of Trump, the MAGAites and the right-wing: Stacking state and local elections boards. An attempt occurred in Nevada, a swing state in 2020 and 2024. And after the four-member, evenly split Wayne County, Mich. (Detroit) elections board voted 3-1 to certify Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's margin there in 2020, Michigan MAGAites forced the Republican commissioner who voted for certification out of office. 'Why do we conclude this represents a concerted strategy? Among other things, President Trump tried to do this before,' the Brennan Center points out. 'He was the first president to try to overturn the results of a presidential election and used federal power to do so. 'Institutions and key officials blocked him. These internal checks, however, are now gone, and many public officials will likely carry out the president's will. 'This campaign to undermine elections runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution. Only Congress and the states can set election rules. The executive branch, especially the Department of Justice (DOJ), is charged with enforcing federal laws. But neither the president nor the DOJ has the authority to set rules governing elections or to supervise' state elections procedures. Yet Trump is trying just that. And, as CREW and the Brennan Center point out, the misnamed SAVE Act, a key goal of the House's ruling right-wing Republicans, would aid and abet that campaign. Other specifics include: Attempting to impose a 'Show Your Papers' requirement on voters. Trump, in a March 25 executive order, and the GOP congressional majority, in the SAVE Act, say doing so would prevent 'voter fraud,' which even Trump's last Attorney General in his first term, Bill Barr, called non-existent. But 'show your papers' mandates, using a citizenship document to even register to vote, 'would undermine voting and disrupt election administration in multiple respects.' Estimates are that the mandate, the SAVE Act, or both, would disenfranchise at least 21 million voters nationwide. Most of them would be women, whose names on their initial voter registrations are different from the name they now use. Force the states to re-certify all their voting machines, buy new ones, or both. That would cost billions of dollars. It's also one step removed from Trump's demand for hand counts of all elections. The certification would be done by federally approved firms and methods, and only one has been okayed by the federal Elections Administration Commission, on July 7, 2025. There are also bans on unauthorized access to voting machines and equipment. The result of violating them is to toss the machines—and the votes they count—out. Tina Peters, former county clerk in rural 'red' Mesa County, Colo., is now serving a 9-year term in prison for allowing Trumpite election deniers access to her county's machines after the 2020 balloting. She was convicted last year. There is a plan for retaliation against opponents of the right-wing's voter rigging. The targets include state and local elections officials, non-partisan groups such as the League of Women Voters, civic groups that mobilize voters 'and other individuals and entities that protect elections and the rule of law,' the Brennan Center reports. That kind of retaliation could target both unions and their get-out-the-vote drives and groups such as the Poor People's Campaign, which registers and mobilizes poor and low-wealth people—the very voters least likely to participate, but also the most likely to oppose the Trumpite, right-wing and corporate hegemony. The Brennan Center reports likely targets for 'law enforcement' type retaliation would include individual voters, election officials, 'perceived political adversaries, and journalists.' The last two groups of targets have been GOP targets before: On Richard Nixon's enemies list. Labour leaders—AFSCME President Jerry Wurf and UAW President Leonard Woodcock—were on it, too. Trump's FBI Director Kash Patel 'stated 'We're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections–we're going to come after you,'' the Brennan Center adds. The Brennan Center reports three active task forces leading that retaliation: The Justice Department's 'Weaponization Working Group, the New Jersey U.S. Attorney's Office Election Integrity Task Force, and the Washington, D.C., Attorney's Office Special Unit. Letting DOGE—Trump's so-called Department of Government Efficiency–access sensitive private and personal voter registration files, just as it did with other agencies, including the Labour Department and the National Labour Relations Board. And the threat isn't only from DOGE's misuse of the files. The Brennan Center adds that when DOGE grabbed the NLRB's files, its security was so lax that foreign hackers immediately invaded them. 'The administration could abuse voter file access to claim fraud and erode public trust in elections,' the Brennan Center warns. 'It could also pressure state officials to target groups of voters and carry out unwarranted voter purges. Any disclosure of sensitive personal information puts individuals and groups at risk of being intimidated or doxed. And mishandling voter file data could expose U.S. elections to political and foreign interference.' As regards intimidating election officials. after what happened in 2020 to the two African-American women in Georgia at the hands of Trump consigliere Rudy Giuliani—one a ballot counter, the other her mother—local elections officials are scared and defecting in droves. 'Criminal investigations and prosecutions would impose a severe personal and financial toll on election officials or nonprofit employees for simply doing their jobs to help keep elections free and fair. But beyond that, the harms that stem from targeting the officials and civil society groups that make our elections work are manifold,' the Brennan Center report says. 'Even if the administration never charges any officials, the threat alone of criminal investigation or prosecution will likely exacerbate the exodus of election officials. In 2024 33% of local election officials knew at least one colleague who resigned in part due to fear for their safety, of increased threats, or of intimidation; 21% stated they were unlikely to continue serving in their role for the 2026 midterms. In 2025, 59% of officials reported fear of political interference in their ability to do their jobs. And 46% were very or somewhat concerned about potential politically motivated investigations of themselves and their families.' The Brennan Center reports 'federal and state law prohibit anyone, including federal officials, from intimidating voters and those, like election officials or civic engagement organizations, who assist or encourage them to vote. And though voters rarely do so, they are able to sue DOJ officials under anti-intimidation law in federal court.' 'The Constitution establishes a system of checks and balances to ensure free and fair elections. The power to regulate elections lies in the hands of states and Congress. Courts and advocates complement this system to uphold the Constitution and federal law,' the Brennan Center declares. 'U.S. election infrastructure leaves no room for the president to insert himself. Yet that is exactly what he purports to do.' (IPA Service) Courtesy: People's World
Filipino Times
9 hours ago
- Filipino Times
Dela Rosa Sees No Need for Senate Debate on Supreme Court's Sara Duterte Ruling
Senator Ronald 'Bato' Dela Rosa expressed his belief that there is no longer a need for the Senate to debate the Supreme Court's decision to dismiss the impeachment case filed against Vice President Sara Duterte. The Senate is scheduled to vote on the High Court's ruling, but Dela Rosa said the matter has already been resolved by the judiciary. The Supreme Court, in a unanimous ruling, declared the impeachment case against the Vice President unconstitutional. The decision was based on the violation of the one-year ban on filing successive impeachment complaints. According to the Constitution, no impeachment proceeding shall be initiated against the same official more than once within a year. Although Dela Rosa is not a lawyer, he emphasized that he recognizes the Supreme Court's authority as the final interpreter of legal and constitutional issues. He said that while the three branches of government are equal, it is only the judiciary that is empowered to make final decisions on such matters. He added that no one is above the Supreme Court except God. Despite his personal stance, Dela Rosa said he will respect Senate President Francis 'Chiz' Escudero's call to allow debate on the floor. Escudero earlier asked senators to listen to arguments from both sides before making a final vote on whether to abide by the High Court's ruling. Dela Rosa, however, maintained that for him, the issue has already been settled by the country's highest court.
Filipino Times
9 hours ago
- Filipino Times
Tulfo Claims at Least 10 Lawmakers Linked to Government Projects as Contractors
Senator Erwin Tulfo revealed that at least ten congressmen in the current 20th Congress are reportedly acting as contractors for government-funded projects. He shared this information during a media interview on Tuesday, citing recent reports that some lawmakers may have business interests in public infrastructure initiatives. While he did not provide specific names, Tulfo estimated that around ten or more House members are involved. When asked about the Senate, the first-term senator said he has no knowledge of similar activities among his colleagues, as he is still new to the upper chamber and has yet to observe the same. The senator's remarks came in the wake of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s State of the Nation Address, where the President condemned corruption related to flood control projects. Marcos called out officials involved in anomalous dealings, blaming them for the misuse of public funds and the worsening flooding situation in many areas. In response to these concerns, Senate President Francis Escudero filed a bill aimed at barring lawmakers and government officials, including their relatives up to the fourth civil degree, from supplying goods or services to the government. Escudero is urging the inclusion of the proposed measure in the priority agenda of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council.
