Photo Release

Senate, House not equal in impeachment trial: Senate President Francis “Chiz” G. Escudero clarifies that the Senate and the House of Representatives (HoR) are not on equal footing during impeachment trial.

During a media briefing Wednesday, June 11, 2025, Escudero stressed that while the Senate and the HoR are co-equal branches of government. however, when the Senate acts as the impeachment court, the members of the HoR as prosecutors, would have no other option but to follow the court’s directives.

The Senate chief made the clarification amid questions on the appropriateness of the motion of the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, to remand the Articles of Impeachment to HoR, without dismissing or terminating the case.

“We are not equal when it comes to this matter, this is not the House and Senate where those agencies are co-equal. In the impeachment process, the Senate is the court, and the House of Representatives is the prosecutor,” Escudero said.

“This is not like a bicam where we need to agree. This is an order from the impeachment court directed at the prosecutor, who is just one party in the case. The party and the court are not equal in any case, anywhere in the world,” he said in Filipino.

The court also ordered the prosecutors to certify that no impeachment proceedings shall be initiated against the same official more than once within a period of one year and the incoming 20th Congress of the HoR shall communicate to the Senate that it is willing and ready to pursue the impeachment complaint against the Vice President. (Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau)