Senate to convene as impeachment court on May 18, says Cayetano

MANILA, Philippine —The Senate will convene as an impeachment court on Monday, May 18, to try the case against Vice President sara Duterte, the chamber’s chief, Alan Peter Cayetano disclosed on Thursday.

The convening of the impeachment court at 3:00 p.m. was contained in Cayetano’s letter to House Speaker Faustino Dy III dated May 14.

In the letter, the Senate chief formally informed the House that the upper chamber was in receipt of the Articles of Impeachment against Duterte, including all its annexes.

“Pursuant to Rule 1 of the Senate Rules of Procedure on Impeachment Rules, the Senate has taken proper order of the impeachment and shall immediately proceed to its consideration, consistent with its mandate under Article XI, Section 3 of the Constitution,” Cayetano said.

“The Secretariat has been directed to include the Articles of Impeachment in the Calendar for Ordinary Business for referral to the Impeachment Court, which shall be convened on 18 May, 2026, 3:00 p.m. or at the soonest possible time, absent any question on the rules and procedure relating to the transmitted Articles,” he also said.

The parties, he said, will be directed to appear before the impeachment court “on a date to be determined subsequently.”

Cayetano signed the letter in front of the press.

Voting 257-25-9, the House of Representatives impeached the vice president on May 11.

The Articles of Impeachment were then transmitted to the Senate on Wednesday night, shortly after the adjournment of session of the lower chamber.

Convening of the impeachment court

Once the Articles of Impeachment are included in the order of business in the Senate, the next step will be the referral to the rules committee before presenting the documents to the plenary.

Cayetano expects the Senate to immediately convene as an impeachment court if all senators will agree to use the existing rules.

“If everyone agrees on the rules, I don’t see any reason why we won’t convene on Monday,” he said.

Once the impeachment court is convened, the Senate president said he will take oath first as the presiding officer while the remaining 23 senators will be sworn in as judges.

“After that, our job is to issue the summons,” he said. “And then from that time on, when they have been responded to, the process will already roll.”

Cayetano guaranteed that the trial proper will follow immediately after convening the impeachment court.

“Once you convene and issue the summons, it will move straight,” he said.

The Senate chief expects no delays in the proceedings, at least on the part of the majority bloc.

“Among the 13, no one said they were unwilling to go to trial,” he said. /apl