The House of Representatives has formally asked the Supreme Court (SC) to reconsider its recent ruling that deemed the impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte unconstitutional.
In a 61-page motion for reconsideration filed on Monday through the Office of the Solicitor General, the House emphasized that it is not seeking political favor, but merely the preservation of its constitutional authority. “The House is not asking of this Honorable Court to favor any one political result… It only asks that this Honorable Court allow Congress to perform the duties the Constitution asks of both its chambers,” the motion stated.
Last month, the SC ruled that the multiple impeachment complaints filed against Duterte violated the constitutional provision that prohibits initiating more than one impeachment proceeding against the same official within a single year. The ruling stemmed from three separate complaints lodged in December, followed by a fourth complaint filed two months later, which had the backing of more than 200 lawmakers.
However, the House disputes the SC’s interpretation that the first three complaints were already “initiated,” even though they were archived before reaching the Committee on Justice. According to the House, these archived complaints never reached the point of official referral to the committee or achieved the threshold of a one-third endorsement from its members — both criteria necessary to initiate impeachment proceedings based on past Supreme Court rulings.
The House further argued that the SC’s latest decision unfairly applied new standards retroactively. “The Honorable Court cannot utilize these newly formulated rules, safeguards, or guidelines to say that the House violated the due process clause and acted with grave abuse of discretion just because it did not comply with the new prescriptions as outlined in the Decision,” the motion emphasized.
The motion reflects growing tensions between two coequal branches of government amid a politically charged atmosphere surrounding the Vice President’s accountability. Lawmakers maintain that their constitutional mandate to check executive officials through impeachment must not be curtailed by judicial overreach.
As of this writing, the Supreme Court has yet to respond to the motion for reconsideration. The ruling on this legal challenge is expected to set a precedent for how impeachment proceedings are interpreted and conducted in the future.