Vice President Sara Duterte and nine supporting lawyers, led by Israelito Torreon, filed a petition before the Supreme Court on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, seeking to stop her Senate impeachment trial. The petition questions Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero’s authority to preside over the proceedings.
In a 21-page “Very Urgent Manifestation with Motion,” the petitioners requested a status quo ante order or similar interim relief to temporarily halt the trial until the high tribunal resolves constitutional disputes surrounding the Senate’s leadership.
Legal challenge to Senate leadership
The motion followed a sharp legal debate on the opening day of the trial, during which Senator Alan Peter Cayetano challenged the Senate’s decision to vote for a presiding officer separate from the sitting Senate President. Cayetano warned on Monday, July 6, 2026, that appointing an alternate presiding officer instead of allowing Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian to lead the trial violates the Constitution. He argued that altering established rules risks compromising the legitimacy of the entire proceeding.
The petitioners argued that the leadership dispute undermines the validity of the ongoing trial, noting that Escudero’s authority stems from controversial Senate proceedings held on June 3, 2026. “These events confirm that the constitutional infirmity attending the composition and leadership of the Senate arising from the proceedings of June 3, 2026 — presently the subject of separate petition for certiorari and prohibition… pending before this honorable court — has not remained a purely academic or intramural Senate concern,” said the petitioners.
Constitutional implications
“The validity of the June 3, 2026 proceedings and the authority of the presiding officer directly affect the validity of the impeachment trial now being conducted,” they added. “Unless immediately restrained, the impeachment court will continue acting under rules and a presiding officer whose validity depends on the proceedings already challenged as unconstitutional. Such continued action risks rendering the pending petitions nugatory and allowing the constitutional injury complained of herein to harden into an accomplished fact.”
To prevent this outcome, the petitioners urged the SC to first rule on their earlier petition challenging the legality of the June 3, 2026 Senate session, which reorganized the chamber's leadership. They requested that the high court allow the trial to move forward “only under Rules of Procedure on Impeachment Trials validly adopted and only under a presiding officer whose authority to preside is not under serious and unresolved constitutional challenge.”
Specific relief sought
The motion specifically asks the SC to enjoin the Senate impeachment court — including its officers, agents, and representatives — from continuing the trial proper, receiving evidence, ruling on objections, issuing orders, or enforcing processes against the Vice President. The lawyers maintained that Duterte has a constitutional right to be tried before a validly and legally constituted impeachment tribunal.
The petition was made public as the Senate impeachment court concluded its second day of proceedings. During Tuesday’s hearing on July 7, 2026, the House prosecution panel presented its first witness and introduced evidence related to Article IV, which details grave threat charges against the Vice President.
