Chiz: Sara not yet required to attend trial

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July 8, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — Senate impeachment court presiding officer Francis Escudero said Vice President Sara Duterte is not yet required to attend her impeachment trial even though she was at the Senate building earlier yesterday to meet with her defense team.

Escudero made the remark on Day 2 of the impeachment trial after private prosecutor Lorna Kapunan pointed out that the impeached official was with her defense team at their holding room around lunchtime.

Duterte left the Senate building shortly before the 2 p.m. start of trial.

Kapunan manifested the prosecution’s intention to treat Duterte as a hostile witness following her physical presence.

Escudero said the Senate impeachment rules do not require the respondent to attend the trial, and that the impeached official may attend through counsel.

“Should the counsel for the prosecutors desire to call the respondent herself, the court will act on that motion and request once it is made and or filed, and need not make a ruling at this point in time,” he said.

Kapunan accepted the ruling but said the prosecution was preserving its right to seek Duterte’s testimony.

For Malacañang, it would be better if Duterte shows up before the Senate impeachment court to answer the allegations against her.

“For now, perhaps it is not yet time (for her to face the impeachment court) because she is not yet being questioned. Although she doesn’t want any opinion, but perhaps as a Filipino, a lawyer, it would be better if someone accused faces the witnesses against her,” Palace press officer Claire Castro told reporters on the sidelines of the West Philippine Sea mural festival in Manila.

Meanwhile, former Philippine Bar Association president Rico Domingo yesterday defended Escudero’s election as presiding officer of the Senate impeachment court, saying Congress has the exclusive authority to adopt its own rules.

Speaking over radio dzBB, Domingo, who chairs the Movement Against Disinformation, said he sees no legal basis to question Escudero’s election despite objections raised by Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano on Monday.

“The governing rule is that Congress has the power to promulgate its own rules, and that is an exclusive power of Congress,” Domingo said. — Alexis Romero, Mark Ernest Villeza, Delon Porcalla