THE House of Representatives prosecution said on Thursday that a final Senate impeachment verdict acquitting or convicting Vice President Sara Z. Duterte is not subject to ordinary appeal.
‘The decision of the Senate Impeachment Court is not appealable. That is basic. It is not subject to review,’ House lead prosecutor and Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro said in a news conference.
Luistro was responding to questions on whether Duterte could seek reconsideration or run for President in 2028 if convicted and perpetually disqualified from public office.
The Constitution grants the Senate the sole power to try and decide impeachment cases. An impeachment judgment is limited to removal from office and disqualification from holding any public office, without foreclosing separate criminal liability under ordinary law, she said.
‘Whatever the decision of the Honorable Impeachment Court may be, whether for conviction or acquittal, there is no remedy for appeal or review,’ Luistro said.
She distinguished this from the Supreme Court’s narrow authority to examine acts involving grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction. That standard does not allow the court to substitute its assessment of the evidence for that of the senator-judges.
Luistro cited the court’s careful handling of the voting-threshold dispute as an example of due process. The court invited amici curiae, heard oral arguments from both sides, allowed questions from senator-judges, and deliberated before voting 13-1 on the controlling formula.
‘If they exercised such caution on the threshold vote, I anticipate that will be doubled or even tripled when they reach their verdict,’ she said. ‘The decision of the impeachment court on acquittal or conviction is never appealable.’
On the threshold itself, Luistro welcomed the ruling that clarified how the constitutional two-thirds requirement will be computed.
‘We welcome the development yesterday [Wednesday]. At last, there is clarity,’ she said.
The court ruled that ‘all the Members of the Senate’ refers to senators who remain legally and factually capable of participating in the proceedings. Six senator-judges did not take part in the 13-1 vote.
‘The Senate or the impeachment court has the power to clarify the threshold vote under its exclusive power to try and decide all impeachment cases,’ Luistro said. ‘Nothing was changed in the two-thirds. Two-thirds remains two-thirds.’
What was clarified, she added, is the denominator: whether all 24 seats must always be counted or only those senators legally and factually capable of participating when judgment is rendered.
‘The threshold remains two-thirds of all the members who are legally and factually present or qualified,’ Luistro said. She commended the court for the due process it observed.
The new formula affects both sides. Using 20 capable senator-judges as an example, 14 votes would be needed to convict while seven could prevent conviction. Under the full 24-member count, the figures were 16 and nine, respectively.
‘What is lowered is not only the number for conviction but also the number for acquittal. It is a two-way consequence,’ Luistro said. ‘It is wrong to say only the conviction vote went down, because the acquittal vote went down at the same time.’
The actual denominator will be fixed only at the time of the final vote.
Luistro stressed that the ruling should not be treated as a forecast of conviction. ‘The prosecution is not in a position to say that the clarification or ruling of the impeachment court points toward conviction. Our commitment remains the same-to present the evidence for the prosecution.’
Meanwhile, House prosecutor and Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon of Bicol Saro said the witness list and presentation of evidence remain unchanged.
‘The laying out of the evidence will not change. The witness list will not change either,’ Ridon said.
Previously subpoenaed witnesses, including Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte, PhilHealth Region XI and the Philippine National Police unit handling firearms records, will still be presented.
‘The burden continues for the prosecution to deliver on the evidence. We will do that until the very end, irrespective of the changing of the threshold by the Senate impeachment court,’ he said.
Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. noted that the documentary evidence, including Duterte’s 2025 declared net worth of P98.66 million and corporate records on business interests and directorships, also remains the same.
‘The evidence does not change,’ Abante said.
The trial is scheduled to resume on Monday, with the continuation of the PhilGEPS witness cross-examination and the presentation of succeeding witnesses.