Day 1 of the impeachment trial of Vice President (VP) Sara Duterte on Monday, July 6, featured two feisty women who each made a compelling case for why Duterte should be punished and removed from office — and why she shouldn’t. 

In her opening statement, lead public prosecutor Jinky Luistro brought the matter to the doorstep of the ordinary Filipino: if an employee was found to have misused office resources, she’d be punished, so why would it be any different for a vice president who was elected by millions? 

And in what world, Luistro asked, does a vice president have declared connections to criminals? In what world does a vice president declare intent to have a president killed? 

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Duterte’s lead counsel Sheila Sison, in turn, cast doubt on the prosecution’s ability to substantiate the charges against her client.

The burden of proof never shifts, Sison declared, pointing out that in the case of Duterte’s alleged misuse of confidential funds provided to her then as education secretary, the buck stopped with the Office of the President, which approved those funds in the first place. 

The hidden and only agenda of this trial is the removal of a vice president who was elected by the most number of voters in recent history, Sison said.

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The opening statements of both sides helped set the tone for a trial that is finally happening after a failed first attempt last year.

The Vice President is the only public official in the country who has been impeached twice, and the irony of it all is that the man who saved her from trial last year is now presiding over her trial today.

Senator Chiz Escudero, elected presiding officer of the trial, sits in a hall of veteran politicians who have witnessed his wiles over the years and who can’t help but wince at how he has maneuvered his way back to the Senate podium.

He was — and will be — the elephant in the room in this trial. 

That he presides over a trial he shunned before is giving discomfort and unease to the communities demanding accountability and punishment for VP Duterte. 

What happened before

As Senate president in June last year, Escudero dragged his feet in acting on the first impeachment complaints submitted to the Senate by the House of Representatives during that period. Are you afraid of Sara? Are you protecting her, asked the endorsers of the complaint back then. 

Still, and despite backdoor efforts to have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. openly support another candidate, Escudero was reelected to the post in July 2025. Then the flood control dam broke in August and reached him. Hours after President Marcos released the list of 15 contractors that bagged the biggest flood control projects of the government, we exposed that one of them is Escudero’s top campaign donor, Lawrence Lubiano. (The Ombudsman is probing Escudero, who is banned from traveling abroad because of it.)

Escudero was ousted a month later, paving the way for the election of Senator Tito Sotto as Senate president and embedding Escudero firmly with the Duterte allies in the chamber.

Escudero would later vote along with the rest of the Duterte camp in ousting Sotto and installing Senator Alan Peter Cayetano as Senate president in a lightning coup in May this year. We all know the chaos that happened after — the escape of Senator Bato dela Rosa, the gunshots in the Senate premises, the noise and drama and outrageous Facebook lives. 

Amid all that, Escudero stayed quiet and kept distance from the fracas. And then like a thief in the night, or a knight in shining armor (whichever your loyalties lie), Escudero appeared one session day to tilt the number in favor of the minority that eventually installed Senator Sherwin Gatchalian as Senate president.

In his opening statement on the first day of the Duterte trial on Monday, Escudero took pains to declare that, “I did not seek nor did I ask for this responsibility.”

Of course he did, according to those privy to past negotiations. 

We had written about the negotiations among senators in the days leading to May 18, the Monday session when the anti-Cayetano bloc first planned to oust him. Insiders told us that Escudero had pledged his vote to this bloc, along with the votes of senators Jinggoy Estrada, Joel Villanueva, and the Villar siblings, but on one condition: that he is elected Senate president.

A back-and-forth ensued, with the minority senators nominating Gatchalian instead to be Senate president — as he was seen as the more neutral choice, friend to all. A term-sharing was proposed, with Gatchalian being SP for the first half and Escudero for the last half. But Escudero, the same insiders said, wanted to be SP first so he can preside over the Duterte trial.

Deadlock followed, and Cayetano continued to be president.

But Cayetano’s antics — boycotting sessions that caused a lack of quorum at the Senate — provided another opening for Escudero. So that when he was most needed, he made a surprise appearance on June 3, allowing the Senate to finally convene and get back to work. 

“I am not joining or leaving any group, bloc, or faction,” he said in Filipino. “I am not saying that anyone is right or wrong, or that anyone has failed or gone too far. But we cannot remain in this situation. What is being affected now is the Senate’s very ability to fulfill its duty to the people.”

“Hindi ito usaping pampulitika,” said Escudero, who is among eight possible reelectionist senators in 2028.

But of course it is. 

Which is why he is where he has always wanted since the Senate intramurals began: to preside over a trial he once rejected. 

The Cayetano siblings know they’ve been had, which explains their miff, and their grasping-at-straws arguments on Monday to question Escudero’s new position.

But to his allies who put him there, Escudero is now their everyday reminder of what they’ve learned in politics: High risk can yield high reward. Or not. – Rappler.com