EXPLAINER: What you need to know about the impeachment process in the Philippines
The political climate in the Philippines has been in turmoil in recent weeks due to the controversies surrounding Vice President Sara Duterte that eventually led to three impeachment raps.
The first complaint was filed by civil society organizations, religious groups, and families of tokhang victims on Dec. 2 and endorsed by Akbayan party-list Rep. Perci Cendaña. The second one, meanwhile, was submitted by activists, teachers, former congressional members and others on Dec. 4 and endorsed by Makabayan lawmakers France Castro, Arlene Brosas, and Raoul Manuel. A third impeachment rap was filed by religious groups, legal professionals, and non-governmental organization workers against Duterte on Dec. 19.
The cases came after the country's second highest official made headlines for her attacks against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., including an “active threat” to his life. Adding fuel to the fire is the alleged misuse of funds for her offices' programs and her refusal to answer questions regarding their expenses, particularly the confidential funds worth P775 million for the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education during her budget proposal's first hearing.
Whether the impeachment complaints against Duterte will move forward remains unclear, but if the news got you curious about the entire impeachment process in the Philippines, here’s what you need to know.
How does impeachment work in the country?
Impeachment is the “constitutional mechanism used to remove the highest officials of the Philippines from their office if they commit certain things,” Mike Tiu, a constitutional law professor at the University of the Philippines' College of Law, said in an interview with PhilSTAR L!fe.
Impeachment is only limited to the five highest offices in the country, namely, the President, the Vice President, members of the Supreme Court, members of constitutional commissions, and the Ombudsman. They can be removed from office once they are found to have committed culpable violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes.
For Leonardo Camacho, who teaches constitutional law at the Ateneo de Manila School of Law, the explanation for these grounds needs improvement.
“The Constitution doesn't really explain what culpable violation of the Constitution is, or treason or bribery, and our jurisprudence is also silent on it kasi we've only had one successful impeachment trial that was concluded,” he said, referring to former Chief Justice Renato Corona who was impeached for betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution in 2012.
Impeachment is regarded as a “last resort tool” in the Constitution, and it starts by initiating a complaint, which can only be done through the power of the House of Representatives.
“A member of the House of Representatives may file a complaint. Anybody who is a citizen of the Philippines can also file it with the endorsement or the support of a member of the House. It can also be filed by one-third of the members of the House of Representatives,” Tiu told L!fe.
“Then it goes on to the House of Representatives plenary. They will calendar it. They will put it in the order of business, and then once it is read on the floor, it is referred to a specific committee,” he added. “In this case, it's the Committee on Justice who receives the complaint.”
The members will then evaluate the case, and once a majority finds it sufficient in form and substance, it gets thrown back into the plenary for final approval before becoming an article of impeachment. A vote of at least one-third among the members is required for this.
The charges specified in the submitted document will then be discussed in an impeachment trial as basis for removing an officeholder.
“Kung sa usual na criminal case, ito ‘yung indictment. ‘Di ba sa usual natin na mga kaso, mayroong inaakusahan ka na ginawa mo ito? Ito ‘yung equivalent sa impeachment,” Tiu explained.
Once the impeachment is approved in the lower house of Congress, it will then go up to the Senate, which will then conduct the trial.
“The Senate will sit as an impeachment court, and then the senators will act as judges. The rule of the House is it initiates the impeachment process, and the Senate is the one that conducts the trial,” Camacho told L!fe.
The constitutional lawyer noted that if the impeachment trial proceeds in the Senate, the one who will prosecute the case will be a member of the House of Representatives.
How long does the impeachment process take?
Atty. Eugene Kaw, chairperson of the Ateneo Department of Marketing and Law and a former government employee, said that the length of the impeachment process for all impeachable officials is the same, regardless of their positions.
“The only difference is the involvement of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court if the official subject of impeachment is the President of the Philippines,” he added.
According to him, the process usually takes months before it reaches a final decision.
“From my observation, it's approximately six months judging from the impeachment proceedings against Corona, which started in December 2011 and concluded with a finding of guilty by May 2012,” Kaw told L!fe.
Despite the officeholders being equal in the eyes of the law, Camacho asserted that impeachment is “ultimately a political process.”
“It's a political exercise, and it will be up to the senators acting as impeachment judges who will really judge whether [the officials] meet these grounds [for impeachment], he said.
“Ultimately, we can’t separate politics from impeachment,” he added. “It will really be up to the Senate when they issue the rules on impeachment, on what standard they pick. It will also depend on the individual senators how they appreciate the evidence.”
What will happen next?
Camacho noted that being impeached does not automatically result in the official being put behind bars for their misdeeds.
“It's not a criminal trial. It will not lead to imprisonment. What it can only do is remove these officers from office and disqualify them from assuming public office in the future,” he explained.
Tiu, however, noted that it doesn't mean the officeholder will not bear the brunt of their wrongdoings.
“Hindi siya kasama sa impeachment proceeding pero pwede siyang kasuhan ng mga plunder, ‘yung mga ganung kaso, tapos saka lang maaaresto kapag na-convict siya,” he said.
The question now stands: Who will succeed an official once they are removed from their position?
According to Kaw, if the president is impeached, the vice president immediately succeeds as the country’s new highest-ranking official.
“If the vice president is impeached, the president shall nominate a vice president from among the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives who shall assume office upon confirmation by a majority vote of all the members of both Houses of the Congress, voting separately,” he explained.
“If any of the members of the Supreme Court, members of the Constitutional Commissions, or the Ombudsman is impeached, it creates a vacancy that can be filled through an appointment of the president,” he continued.
Despite the removal, Camacho said that the official can still theoretically remedy the loss if they think the ruling was unfair by appealing to the Supreme Court. "But that's going to be very difficult, kasi under the Constitution, it's really the discretion of the Senate whether or not to convict or to acquit the impeached officer," he noted.
"The Supreme Court will really not interfere with that unless talaga there's grave abuse of discretion, if completely without basis and the senators committed a violation of the Constitution in convicting, but that's a very high standard," he stressed.
Impeachment is a long process, but an official may opt to resign from their position before the trial starts.
“Mawawala ‘yung kaso, kasi ang purpose ng impeachment ay ang pagtanggal sa kanya, so kung kusa niyang tinanggal ‘yung sarili niya by resigning, wala nang punto ‘yung kaso so matitigil siya,” Tiu said.
An impeachable official's death could also be another reason for the abortion of the process as well as the conclusion of their term.
Should Duterte's impeachment cases proceed, she would be the fifth official to undergo the process after former president Joseph Estrada in 2000, former Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez in 2011, Corona in 2011, and former chairman of the Commission on Elections Andres Bautista in 2017.
Among the four, Corona was the only one who was successfully impeached by the Senate (20–3). Gutierrez and Bautista resigned before the trial, while Estrada's case was aborted when senators rejected an envelope that allegedly had strong evidence against him—a controversial move that sparked a second EDSA Revolution in 2001. It prompted Estrada to step down from his post and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to take over his office.