A Facebook post is claiming that Vice President Sara Duterte has been ‘officially impeached’ and cannot be president in 2028. This needs context.
Published on May 11, after the House of Representatives voted to impeach, or formally charge the vice president of misconduct while in office, for a second time, the graphic read:
“255 VOTES! SARA DUTERTE IS OFFICIALLY IMPEACHED!.
SHE WILL NOT BE PRESIDENT!”
Another FB user published the same graphic nine minutes after the first one.
The Lower Chamber, with a vote of 255 affirmative, 25 negative and nine abstentions, impeached Duterte just before the post was published. The claim assumes the impeachment vote results in immediate removal and disqualification from public office.
According to Article XI, Section 3 of the 1987 constitution, impeachment is a two-stage process. The House of Representatives serves as the indicting body, where its responsibility is to look into the complaints against the officer and decide if there is enough evidence to go to trial.
The Senate, once convened as an impeachment court, has the sole power to try and decide the case, and either convict or acquit the impeached officer.
Impeachment, however, does not bar Duterte from running for the presidency in 2028. If found guilty by the Senate with at least a two-thirds vote on at least one article of impeachment, she will be automatically removed from office. The impeachment court has the discretion to impose an additional penalty of permanent disqualification from holding any public office.
As detailed in House Committee on Justice Report No. 261, four articles of impeachment led to Duterte’s indictment, including: misuse of public and confidential funds; unexplained wealth and financial misdeclaration; bribery, graft and corruption; and assassination threats and incitement to sedition.
The Senate is expected to convene as an impeachment court to begin the trial proceedings under the leadership of newly installed Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano, who replaced Sen. Vicente C. Sotto III, also on May 11.
The House is meticulously preparing multiple copies of the Articles of Impeachment and their attachments before transmitting these to the Senate.
The first attempt to impeach Duterte in 2025 was aborted due to the constitutional rule on the one-year ban on re-filing an impeachment complaint.
As of writing, the post published by FB page ND.GG (Jan. 2, 2021) and an FB user collectively garnered 989 reactions; 355 comments; and 20 shares.
