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Vice President Sara Duterte, once allied with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., became the first second highest official of the land to be impeached by the House of Representatives.
Over 200 lawmakers signed the impeachment complaint earlier this month that sealed her fate. After the lower chamber’s voting, the ball is now in the court of the Senate, whose members will convene as an impeachment court that will decide whether or not to remove the Vice President from office.
Senators will serve as judges, while some members of the House of Representatives will act as prosecutors in the trial. As in other proceedings, the Vice President can form her own team consisting of lawyers who will defend her in court.
Here are the lawyers who will make up Sara Duterte’s defense team, based on her petition filed with the Supreme Court seeking to block the trial.
Former president Rodrigo Duterte
In December 2024, the Vice President announced that her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, will be her collaborating counsel in the impeachment proceedings. The former president is a lawyer and was accepted to the Bar in 1973. Before entering politics, he had served as a prosecutor in Davao City.
There is no rule that bars lawyers from representing their family members. National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers president Ephraim Cortez earlier told Rappler that Duterte “can act as one of the lawyers of VP Sara provided that he is compliant with the requirements imposed on practicing lawyers like the updated Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE).”
Based on the Vice President’s petition asking the SC to block her impeachment trial, the former president has been exempted from MCLE. Lawyers who may be exempted include the president and other government officials, and “those who have retired from law practice with the approval of the IBP Board of Governors.”
Lucas Carpio Jr.
The Vice President’s father-in-law also appears to be part of her defense team.
Lucas Carpio Jr., Manases Carpio’s father, was listed as among Duterte’s lawyers in the SC petition. The older Carpio is married to former Court of Appeals justice Agnes Carpio, who retired in 2016. Lucas’ wife also served as a Regional Trial Court judge in Manila, Parañaque, Pasig, and Davao City.
Lucas is the brother of retired ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales and the cousin of retired SC senior associate justice Antonio Carpio. Although they are related by marriage, Conchita and Antonio are not allied with the Dutertes. In fact, the two were among the consistent opposition voices against the former president’s controversial policies.
The Vice President’s father-in-law also co-founded Carpio and Bello Law Offices with former labor chief Silvestre Bello III.
A 2019 Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) report said that Lucas had also lawyered for corporations with cases before government agencies, similar to his son’s law firm. Manases’ firm was the lawyer on record for clients with controversial cases before state regulatory agencies.
Philip Sigfrid Fortun
Philip Sigfrid Fortun is a founding partner of Fortun, Narvasa, and Salazar — the firm that handles Duterte’s petition opposing the impeachment trial. He was admitted to the Bar in 1984.
He studied at the University of the Philippines (UP) from high school up to law school. He earned his law degree from the state university in 1983 and passed the Bar exams a year later. Before establishing his firm in 1993, Fortun worked as an associate for a big law firm in the country for nearly a decade.
His law experience covers criminal and civil litigation, arbitration, and even impeachment. Fortun is also affiliated with uniformed personnel — he is a trained volunteer fire fighter of the Bureau of Fire Protection and shares a bond with the Philippine Military Academy Sandigan Class of 1982.
Fortun’s firm handled major cases including the Ampatuan case, but they later withdrew due to “potential conflict.” The firm once served as counsels for the Ampatuans who were charged with the killing of the Maguindanao Massacre victims.
In the middle of the Ampatuan case, Fortun filed an indirect contempt case against Filipino journalists for reporting about his disbarment case. The High Court cleared the journalists from the case in 2013, but fined the lawyer who supposedly distributed the copy of the disbarment case to the media.
Fortun also counseled Mighty Corporation, the cigarette company whose owner former president Rodrigo Duterte had ordered arrested 2017 for allegedly using fake tax stamps.
Gregorio Narvasa II
Like Fortun, Gregorio Narvasa II is his firm’s founding partner. Narvasa earned his business management degree from the Ateneo de Manila University, then ranked 8th in the UP law class of 1985. He passed the Bar in 1986.
Gregorio is the son of late chief justice Andres Narvasa, who represented former president Joseph Estrada in his impeachment in 2000.
Before his law career, Narvasa played basketball for Ateneo. He was a member of Ateneo’s basketball varsity team and clinched the Most Valuable Player award during the National Collegiate Athletic Association 1975-1976 season. He was also a member of the country’s national basketball team that represented the Philippines in games within the ASEAN region.
Narvasa is still engaged with basketball. He served as Philippine Basketball League commissioner from 1992 to 1994, and then as Metroball Basketball Association commissioner from 2000 to 2001.
Duterte’s lawyer served as a trustee of the Ateneo Sports Hall of Fame, Inc. in 2004, and became its president from 2011 to present.
Sheila Sison
Sheila Sison is a partner at Fortun, Narvasa, and Salazar law firm. She appeared in a forum organized by the University of the Philippines College of Law about impeachment, where she had been identified as one of the Vice President’s lawyers.
She earned her communication arts degree from UP Los Baños (UPLB) and her law degree from San Sebastian College Recoletos, where she graduated as class valedictorian. The vice president is also a product of San Sebastian’s law school.
Sison was admitted to the Bar in 2014. A product of Quezon City Science High School, Sison later entered UPLB where she headed some organizations like the UP Sigma Alpha Nu Sorority. She was also a debater and writer — she was part of her university paper’s editorial board during her undergraduate years.
In law school, she was a full academic scholar and was a consistent dean’s lister. She was also a recipient of the academic Excellence Medal of Honor by the Recoletos Educational Apostolate of the Philippines, according to her law firm profile. Sison specializes in criminal litigation and has handled Sandiganbayan cases.
Roberto Batungbacal
Robert Batungbacal, who is also listed as Duterte’s lawyer in the petition, is a senior partner at the Fortun, Narvasa, and Salazar law firm. He earned both his management economics and law degrees from Ateneo. He was admitted to the Bar in 2019.
Prior to becoming a lawyer, Batungbacal was a swimmer in his younger years up to college. He was also a multi-medal University Athletic Association of the Philippines varsity team member. – Rappler.com
