INQToday: Charter experts urge Senate to proceed with Duterte impeachment trial
Here’s a quick roundup of today’s top stories:
Charter experts urge Senate to proceed with Duterte impeachment trial
The country’s oldest and most authoritative voice on constitutional law has urged the Senate to proceed with the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, reminding senators that the accountability of public officials should not be thwarted by procedural inventions or partisan maneuvering.
“At stake is not merely the fate of one official, but the integrity of the Constitution itself. Impeachment is the people’s mechanism to enforce Accountability of Public Officials. It must not be thwarted by procedural invention or partisan maneuver,” the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa), led by its chairman, retired Chief Justice Reynato Puno, said in a statement.
Escudero: Only SC can tell if impeachment articles’ return is unconstitutional
Only the Supreme Court has the power to decide on the constitutionality of the senator-judges’ decision to remand the Articles of Impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte to the House of Representatives.
This was made clear by Senate President Chiz Escudero on Friday, dismissing claims that the action made by the impeachment court blatantly violates the Constitution.
Vice President Sara Duterte claimed there was fraud in the 2025 senatorial elections and that three more Partido Demokratiko Pilipino (PDP) bets “won.”
Duterte said this at an Independence Day event with Filipinos in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where former PDP senatorial candidates Jayvee Hinlo, Jimmy Bondoc, and Richard Mata joined her.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) would call for an all-official emergency meeting following Congress’ ratification of the bicameral conference committee report on the proposed law extending the term of elected barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officials.
Comelec Chairperson George Erwin Garcia, in an online interview on Thursday, said the commission would adhere to what was agreed upon by both chambers of Congress, noting that the measure that was recently adopted and ratified seeks to strengthen the country’s electoral system.
House spokesperson Abante says Senate ‘killed the P200 wage hike bill’
The Senate did not want to convene a bicameral conference committee on the proposed minimum wage hike bills and preferred that their version of the measure be adopted instead, House of Representatives spokesperson Princess Abante said on Thursday.
Abante in a statement said that it was the Senate that killed the proposals for a minimum wage hike, because House lawmakers were trying to discuss a possible compromise between their P200 wage hike proposal and the Senate’s P100.
