MANILA, Philippines – Amid speculation that developments at the Senate could further delay the trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, new Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano set Monday, May 18, as the date when the upper chamber will convene as an impeachment court.

“Consistent with its mandate under Article 11, Section 3 of the Constitution, the secretariat has been directed to include the articles of impeachment in the calendar for ordinary business for referral to the impeachment court, which shall be convened on 18 May 2026, 3 pm, or at the possible soonest time, absent any question on the rules and procedure related to the transmitted articles,” Cayetano said, reading his letter to House Speaker Bojie Dy.

“We will follow (the Constitution), there will be no delays,” Cayetano told reporters.

Cayetano was elected Senate president on Monday, May 11, after a coup against his predecessor, Senator Tito Sotto. Cayetano’s promise not to delay impeachment proceedings came less than a day after the House transmitted the impeachment articles to the Senate, on Wednesday night, May 13.

Based on Senate Resolution No. 39, it is during this stage that the articles of impeachment are presented and a writ of summons is issued against the impeached official. The Senate will then set the date and time for the consideration of the articles.

Cayetano said it is the House prosecutors’ discretion whether to go to the Senate to present the impeachment articles.

He guaranteed to follow the constitutional timelines that precede the trial proper, and insisted that from the side of the 13-majority bloc, there are no more debates about the Senate’s formation as an impeachment court.

Last year, when Duterte was impeached for the first time, it took the Senate a lengthy debate just to convene as an impeachment court, before it remanded the case back to the House over alleged constitutional infirmities. That move delayed the proceedings, and the eventual declaration by the Supreme Court of the impeachment unconstitutional ultimately killed what would have been a trial.

“I can tell you what was discussed. Everyone (all the 13) said we should have the trial, and there’s no one who said no,” Cayetano said on Thursday.

Duterte was impeached on Monday on various constitutional grounds, in relation to her alleged misuse of public funds, bribery of government officials, unexplained wealth, and threats to the life of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

The leadership in the Senate, however, has never been this unstable in recent memory.

Cayetano is holding on to a slim 13-person majority, and he claimed on Thursday that there were active attempts to unseat him. His numbers are complicated by the status of Senator Bato dela Rosa, his colleague in the majority.

Dela Rosa has escaped from the Senate following a gunfire that took place within Senate premises on Wednesday night. Dela Rosa was under the “protective custody” of the Senate as he moved to exhaust all legal remedies amid his active arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court due to his role in former president Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody drug war.

Cayetano denied that the shooting was staged and a diversionary tactic to allow Dela Rosa to exit the building. – Rappler.com