Camille Naredo

Vice President Sara Duterte joins Former President and Pampanga 2nd District Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during the 2025 KASARILAYAAN Pride Reception on Wednesday, June 25, at the LausGroup Event Centre in San Fernando, Pampanga. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News

Vice President Sara Duterte joins Former President and Pampanga 2nd District Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during the 2025 KASARILAYAAN Pride Reception on Wednesday, June 25, at the LausGroup Event Centre in San Fernando, Pampanga. 

The annual gathering brings together LGBTQIA+ community leaders, advocates, and allies to celebrate Pride Month and highlight ongoing efforts toward inclusivity, equality, and the empowerment of the LGBTQIA+ sector.
Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News

Article (news)

PRIDE MONTH EVENT- VP Sara

Job Manahan

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:958px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/175559869529720250625-kasarilayaan-duterte-MT17.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Vice President Sara Duterte joins Former President and Pampanga 2nd District Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during the 2025 KASARILAYAAN Pride Reception on Wednesday, June 25, at the LausGroup Event Centre in San Fernando, Pampanga. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Vice President Sara Duterte joins Former President and Pampanga 2nd District Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during the 2025 KASARILAYAAN Pride Reception on Wednesday, June 25, at the LausGroup Event Centre in San Fernando, Pampanga. <em>Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News</em></span></span></span></div><p>MANILA -- Vice President Sara Duterte has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to dismiss the House of Representatives’ motion for reconsideration (MR) on the high court’s decision nullifying her articles of impeachment.</p><p>Based on the 27-page comment, Duterte said the House’s MR should be denied for lack of merit.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/8/19/vp-duterte-defense-team-submits-comment-to-sc-on-house-appeal-on-impeachment-1038">READ: VP Duterte defense team submits comment to SC on House appeal on impeachment</a></div><p>The House in its motion for reconsideration, pointed out supposed “factual errors” in the Supreme Court’s decision, and argued that “the fourth impeachment complaint could not have been barred by the archival, termination, or dismissal of the first three impeachment complaints, because while the latter were undergoing the process of inclusion and referral the fourth impeachment complaint was completed”.</p><p>“It is rather the fourth impeachment complaint, which barred all other impeachment complaints from being initiated,” the lower chamber said.</p><p>But the Vice President said the claims were “mere diversions obsessed with trivia and blind to the Decision&#x27;s genuine core reasoning.”</p><p>“This fixation on peripheral details downplays the legitimate issue in this case, namely, that the HOR committed grave abuse of discretion and deliberately did away with constitutionally imposed limitations to its power to impeach,” she said in her comment dated Aug. 18.</p><p>“The HOR&#x27;s contentions evince a disregard of the limits of its power and the constitutional parameters underlying the impeachment process. Worse, they are demonstrative of a feigned ignorance of the HOR&#x27;s own overreach and fixate on immaterial details that do not alter the substance of the Decision,” she added.</p><p>Duterte said contrary to what the House claimed that the High Court supposedly misunderstood the sequence of events, the magistrates’ decision showed their “unequivocal grasp of the timeline and the HOR&#x27;s maneuvers to skirt constitutional limits.”</p><p>“Far from respondent HOR&#x27;s insinuations of factual error, the Court&#x27;s ruling is grounded on constitutional principles, and not upon some naive assumption of timing techniques,” the document read.</p><div><a class="fr-strong fr-green" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/8/17/business-groups-urge-supreme-court-to-reconsider-vp-duterte-impeachment-ruling-1632">READ: Business groups urge Supreme Court to reconsider Sara Duterte impeachment ruling</a></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>RIGHT TO DUE PROCESS</strong></div><p>In its decision, the SC said “the respondent should have had the opportunity to be heard on the draft Articles of Impeachment and the supporting evidence to prove the charges prior to the transmittal to the Senate.”</p><p>But in its MR, the lower chamber argued that under the Constitution, the filing of a complaint by at least one-third of House members is the “single and sufficient” act to trigger transmission to and eventually trial in the Senate.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/8/8/makabayan-others-formally-ask-sc-to-reconsider-vp-sara-impeachment-ruling-1504">READ: Makabayan, others formally ask SC to reconsider VP Sara impeachment ruling</a></div><p>“The Constitution requires nothing else,” the House stressed, noting that due process will occur “during the trial itself”.</p><p>In her comment, Duterte argued otherwise, noting that the articles of impeachment were not referred to the House Committee on Justice based on the lower chamber’s Rule II, Section 2.</p><p>“Even the second mode of impeachment requires a subsequent referral to the Committee on Justice,” she said.</p><p>“Whichever mode the House employs to initiate an impeachment proceeding, the respondent must be given notice and a fair, reasonable opportunity to address the allegations at the initiation stage, not only at trial,” she said.</p><p>The Supreme Court in July blocked the Senate impeachment trial of Duterte, saying it violated a constitutional provision against multiple impeachment proceedings within a single year.</p><p>The 13-0 ruling came just days before the Senate was to begin its new session, with the vice president&#x27;s political future hanging in the balance. Widely expected to run for president in 2028, a Senate trial conviction would have barred Duterte permanently from public office.</p><p>The House of Representatives impeached Duterte in early February, charging the vice president with graft, corruption and an alleged assassination plot against one-time ally and former running mate President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.</p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kSOYlWVGvDY?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>Vice President Sara Duterte has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to dismiss the House of Representatives’ motion for reconsideration (MR) on the high court’s decision nullifying her articles of impeachment.</p>

Vice President Sara Duterte has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to dismiss the House of Representatives’ motion for reconsideration (MR) on the high court’s decision nullifying her articles of impeachment.

‘Mere diversions’: VP Sara Duterte asks SC to deny House’s MR vs impeachment ruling

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‘Mere diversions’: VP Sara Duterte asks SC to deny House’s MR vs impeachment ruling

Job Manahan,

ABS-CBN News

Published August 19, 2025 06:19 PM PHT

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Updated August 19, 2025 07:58 PM PHT

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Supreme Court

Vice President Sara Duterte

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