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Cristina Chi - Philstar.com
January 30, 2026 | 12:18pm
A photo uploaded on Dec. 14, 2025, on Facebook shows Vice President Sara Duterte joining her staff from central and satellite offices during the 2025 year-end celebration.
Vice President Sara Duterte via Facebook
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte said her lawyers have been preparing for another impeachment case that may potentially be filed after February 6, following the Supreme Court's dismissal with finality of her first impeachment case.
"Yes, 'yung mga lawyers, they've been preparing. They were hired as early as the fourth quarter of 2023, the moment that one of the members of the House of Representatives announced that they will file a case against me," Duterte told members of the overseas Filipino community at The Hague, Netherlands, on Thursday, January 29.
Duterte said her lawyers discussed preparations for another round of impeachment raps before the Christmas break last year.
Attempts to impeach her, the vice president said, will likely continue annually until the end of her term.
Asked whether former President Rodrigo Duterte knew about the outcome of her case, the vice president said she did not discuss it with him and avoided talking about impeachment altogether.
The High Court has unanimously denied the House of Representatives' motion for reconsideration and upheld its July 25, 2025, decision that declared the articles of impeachment against Duterte unconstitutional.
To recall, the court earlier deemed the fourth impeachment complaint against Duterte a violation of the Constitution's one-year bar rule under Article XI, Section 3(5), which prohibits filing more than one impeachment complaint against the same official within 12 months.
The Supreme Court ruled in July 2025 that new impeachment complaints against Duterte could only be filed starting Feb. 6, 2026 — one year after the fourth complaint was transmitted to the Senate.
However, in its January 29 decision denying the House's appeal, the court clarified that the one-year ban was actually triggered on Jan. 14, 2025, when the first complaints were not placed in the House agenda within 10 session days.
Since January 14 has already passed, new impeachment complaints can now be filed immediately without waiting for February 6.
