Iloilo Third District Representative Lorenz Defensor is “very disappointed” with the Supreme Court’s (SC) decision denying with finality the motion for reconsideration filed by the House of Representatives.
The SC unanimously affirmed its July 25, 2025 ruling that found the impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Z. Duterte “unconstitutional” for “violating the one-year bar under Article XI, Section 3(5) of the 1987 Constitution.”
In an interview, Defensor said: “I’m very disappointed with the decision of the Supreme Court, it did not respect the separation of powers. Hindi nito ni-respeto ang independence ng Kongreso ‘pag dating sa impeachment, how we interpret and execute our own rules should be up to Congress.”
“Sana ginalang nila na the impeachment process is a political question, at hindi sana sila na encroach sa exclusive right of Congress to initiate impeachment proceedings,” the Ilonggo lawmaker added.
According to the SC’s January 28 resolution, the first impeachment complaint filed last December 2, 2024 against Duterte should have been included in the Order of Business by January 14, 2025, and forwarded to the House Committee on Justice by January 21.
Defensor said he is bothered that the SC appeared to “dictate how they will interpret their session days, and how they should proceed with the impeachment referral.”
“Hindi na dapat sinuggest ng Supreme Court — kahit ginagalang natin sila — kung paano i-proseso ito. Malinaw ang wording ng ating Constitution, that if at least one-third of all the members of the House of Representatives, just like what we did, endorsed an impeachment complaint, it should go directly to Senate for trial forthwith,” he told reporters.
The House of Representatives of the 19th Congress impeached Duterte in February last year after 215 of its members filed and signed a fourth complaint, which was based on allegations of, among others, misuse of confidential funds in her offices and threats against ranking officials.
“We will respect the Supreme Court ruling, and we will see that the revised rules that we will approve will, first of all, be aligned with the provisions of the Constitution, and aligned with the intentions of the framers of the Constitution,” said Defensor.
The lawmaker served as one of the House prosecutors in the impeachment trial of the vice president.IMT
