Impeachment trial to continue even if Sara Duterte resigns – prosecution

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte’s resignation during her impeachment trial would not automatically end the proceedings, the prosecution team said Monday, stressing that the case should continue even if she leaves office before a verdict.

In a media briefing, the prosecution team’s spokesman Benjamin Tolosa Jr. explained that a convicted official faces two penalties: removal from office and perpetual disqualification from holding public office. A resignation, he said, would only address the first penalty, not the second.

“The resignation does not render the entire proceedings moot because there are other penalties too,” he said in mixed English and Filipino.

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Impeachment is a constitutional process for removing top officials accused of wrongdoing, but resignations have historically been used to avoid trial.

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Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez resigned in 2011, while Commission on Elections chief Andres Bautista resigned in 2017 before a trial commenced.

Former Chief Justice Renato Corona has undergone a full impeachment trial and received a verdict from the Senate impeachment court.

READ: Sara Duterte’s political future at stake as trial opens

LIVE UPDATES: Impeachment trial of VP Sara Duterte | July 6, 2026

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Duterte is accused of misusing hundreds of millions of pesos in confidential funds, amassing unexplained wealth, engaging in bribery, and threatening the lives of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the first lady, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez.

The prosecution team said Duterte’s resignation would not render its efforts to build the case futile, insisting that the trial should continue.

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“The trial must continue because resignation does not automatically condone the acts committed,” Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, a spokesman for the prosecution, said in the same briefing.

“She has been impeached, and as far as the House of Representatives is concerned… the procedural conclusion from that stage, according to the Constitution, is for the Senate to try and decide (her case),” he added. /mcm

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