ASEANEWS HEADLINE-VP Du30 IMPEACHMENT | MANILA: President Marcos: SC impeachment ruling didn’t touch on merits
President Bongbong Marcos now July 28, 2025 delivering his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA) at Batasang Pambansa. His speech started at exactly 4:06PM. #SONA2025
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LIVE | Philippine President Marcos on Sara Duterte’s Impeachment & Assassination Plot Allegations
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said that the president has “very little role to play” in the vice president’s impeachment process. He was talking to Firstpost Managing Editor Palki Sharma about the impeachment of Philippine V-P Sara Duterte. Asked if he supported her removal from office, Marcos Jr. said: “I just made it very clear that the executive, with the president, has very little role to play in that process. We are, of course, very interested parties, very interested observers. But it doesn’t go beyond that.” Asked if he thought Duterte was capable of hatching an alleged assassination plot against him, the president responded: “I don’t know. I’m really not in a position to say what that’s about, but you have to be careful. In my position, there always is some kind of threat, and we take them all very seriously.”
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MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court’s decision declaring the impeachment case filed against Vice President Sara Duterte as unconstitutional “does not have any bearing on the rightness or wrongness” of the accusations, and the country should still “try to get some answers” from her, President Marcos said yesterday.
At a press conference on the last day of his five-day state visit in India, Marcos said the high court only ruled on procedural issues, not on the merits of the impeachment case.
“We have to make very, very clear to everyone that the Supreme Court decision does not have any bearing on the rightness or wrongness in the impeachment case. Accountability doesn’t come into it here,” the President said.
“The merits of the case were not examined by the Supreme Court. This does not decide the merits of the case. It just talked about the procedure,” he said.
It was the first time that Marcos commented on the SC decision on the impeachment case against Duterte since the High Court handed down its ruling last month.
On July 25, the SC unanimously declared the Articles of Impeachment against Duterte as unconstitutional as it ruled that the complaints violated the one-year-bar rule under Article XI Section 3 Paragraph 5 of the Constitution as well as her right to due process.
The President’s remarks came days after 19 senators voted to archive the impeachment case against Duterte.
Marcos indicated that some people – apparently pushing for the impeachment trial – have consulted him on what to do next.
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“Some are asking… ‘sorry, that’s your problem. I don’t borrow problems – that’s your problem,” the Chief Executive said, without elaborating.
“It will be highly improper for me to tell my friends in the Senate and House that this is what you should do… that’s highly improper. Even I would be impeached if I will do that,” he said.
“I keep telling you that the President has no role in this… I’m an impeachable officer so I can’t really involve myself in this.”
Marcos, however, said the country should still “try to get some answers.”
He said the Commission on Audit can examine all allegations against Duterte. “They (COA) can examine all of this… Because we are coming up in the budget process, I think these (accusations) would come out again,” Marcos said.
“I’m sure the House and the Senate will start to conduct further investigations on this because it really is their purview,” Marcos said.
He said he continues to focus on his priorities for the people whatever happens to the impeachment case.
“There are so many things that I need to do and those are my priorities,” Marcos said. “We will just continue our work.”
In February, the House of Representatives impeached Duterte after 215 out of its 306 members signed and verified the impeachment complaint against her.
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Makabayan files MR
Lawmakers under the Makabayan bloc yesterday filed a separate motion for reconsideration (MR) asking the Supreme Court to reverse its ruling junking the impeachment complaint against Duterte.
In their 27-page Motion to Intervene and Reconsideration, House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio, Kabataan party-list Rep. Renee Louise Co and several leaders of progressive groups maintained that the impeachment complaint against Duterte, initiated by the House of Representatives of the 19th Congress, was compliant with the impeachment process under Article XI (Accountability of Public Officers) of the Constitution.
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“In a system where public office is a public trust, the people must retain accessible and effective avenues to hold even the highest officials to account. The Constitution lays down these avenues deliberately. It is not the role of the Court to revise them,” the Makabayan bloc’s motion read.
“The Intervenors thus respectfully urge this Honorable Court to reconsider its decision and in so doing, to reaffirm not only the text of the Constitution, but the democratic values it was meant to protect,” it added.
Apart from Tinio and Co, named as intervenors in the motion were former ACT Teachers party-list representative France Castro, former Gabriela party-list representatives Arlene Brosas and Liza Maza, former Kabataan party-list representative Raul Manuel, former Bayan Muna representative Teddy Casiño as well as activists Renato Reyes, Eufemia Doringo, Modesto Floranda and Amirah Lidasan.
Acting as legal counsel of the Makabayan bloc was the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) led by its chairman Edre Olalia.
In their motion, the group said the SC, in its July 25 decision, “places in jeopardy” the entire constitutional process of impeachment, the only recourse of people to hold the highest officials of the state accountable.
“By superimposing new procedural requirements upon the text – requirements nowhere found in Article XI – the Honorable Court risks constricting what the Constitution intended to leave open. What was crafted as an exceptional power of oversight may now be rendered inert by procedural entanglements never envisioned by the framers [of the Constitution],” the motion read.
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The Makabayan’s motion for reconsideration is the fourth. The others were filed by civil society coalition 1Sambayan, Tindig Pilipinas and the House, represented by the Office of the Solicitor General.
President Marcos back from India
Marcos returned to the country last night from India, reporting that his team had “secured” $446 million in “actual direct investments.”
He said additional investment opportunities of up to $5.7 billion are expected.
The plane carrying Marcos and his delegation landed at the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City at 8:06 p.m. He described the trip as “a new beginning” for the two countries.— Helen Flores, Elizabeth Marcelo
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