MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court voted unanimously to grant the petitions seeking to stop the impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte, citing violations of the one-year bar rule.
The Supreme Court said that the first three complaints filed against Duterte in December 2024 constituted a separate impeachment proceeding, different from the February 2025 House resolution that materialized into the Articles of Impeachment.
The December 2024 complaints, the Supreme Court said, were considered terminated in February 2025 the moment that the House adopted its resolution. As such, the next opportunity to initiate a new proceeding would have been February 2026.
There’s a one-year bar rule in the 1987 Constitution, which states that “impeachment proceedings [cannot] be initiated against the same official more than once within a period of one year.”
Constitutional lawyers have started questioning the decision, saying that it has transformed the impeachment process that was always meant to be a political practice, not judicial.
You can read the full text of the decision here:
SC Decision Barring VP Sara Duterte Impeachment by Rappler on Scribd
– Rappler.com