What archiving impeachment articles vs Sara Duterte means

‘I know for a fact, once it is archived, it is dead,’ says Senate Minority Leader Tito Sotto

MANILA, Philippines – On Wednesday, August 6, the Senate voted 19-4-1 to archive the Articles of Impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte, effectively ending the process – at least for now.

The Senate’s Wednesday vote was widely expected given that senators had been vocal about their stance on the issue following the Supreme Court’s (SC) ruling declaring it as unconstitutional.

The senators’ heated debate during the plenary session was reminiscent of their earlier decision to remand the case to the House of Representatives, where they introduced motions using seemingly synonymous language.

It was Senator Rodante Marcoleta, a staunch Duterte ally, who initially made a motion to dismiss the impeachment case, citing the SC ruling.

“The last arbiter of law, it says the complaint is unconstitutional, is void ab initio, and is violative of due process. The Senate never acquired jurisdiction over this. It is immediately executory. On that note, Mr. President, I respectfully move that the impeachment complaint be dismissed,” Marcoleta said.

Senate Minority Leader Tito Sotto filed a counter-motion to Marcoleta, pointing out that it would be premature to dismiss the case given that there’s a pending motion for reconsideration filed by the House.

“The decision is not yet final. A Motion for Reconsideration was filed by the House of Representatives just last Monday. Why are we rushing to dismiss the case?” Sotto said, as he moved to “table” the vote on Marcoleta’s motion.

Senator Panfilo Lacson, also part of the minority bloc, said that there’s no “motion to dismiss” in the Senate rules.

“I’ve been diligently reading and reviewing the rules of the Senate since I’ve been out of this august chamber for three years. Nowhere in our rules can I find a provision on a motion to dismiss as submitted by the honorable gentleman from Tarlac,” said Lacson, who previously served as senator from 2001 to 2013, and from 2016 to 2022.

Before the vote on Sotto’s motion, Marcoleta — following the suggestion of some senators — agreed to amend his original motion to instead call for the archiving of the articles of impeachment. Senator Alan Peter Cayetano proposed using the term adhere instead, but Senator Migz Zubiri, a former Senate president familiar with the chamber’s rules, clarified that archive was the correct operative term.

Sotto’s motion lost with a vote of 19-5, leading to the nominal vote on Marcoleta’s amended motion.

‘Archive’

In legislative lingo, archiving means setting aside a case and removing it from the chamber’s active records.

In a chance interview with reporters, Cayetano explained the meaning of “archiving,” contrasting it with Sotto’s motion to “table” the vote on the motion.

“Ang ibig sabihin ng i-table ay isantabi. So, ibig sabi noon buhay, hindi lang muna inaasikaso o tatalakayin. Pero sabi na Supreme Court kasi immediately executory. At sinabi niya void ab initio, wala from the start,” he said.

(To “table” something means to set it aside. So that means it’s still alive, just not being handled or discussed for now. But the Supreme Court said it’s immediately executory. And it declared it void ab initio — meaning it was invalid from the start.)

“As of now, ibig sabihin kasi ng archive, parang ibig sabihin ililibing mo eh. Ang ibig sabihin kasi noong i-table mo, buhay ‘yun. Wala lang ngayon sa priority na dini-discuss. Pero ‘yung in-archive, ibig sabihin, either tapos na ‘yan o patay na ‘yan, kaya doon muna natin ilalagay,” Cayetano explained.

(As of now, what archive means is kind of like you’re burying it. To table means it’s still alive. It’s just not a current priority for discussion. But when something is archived, it means it’s either finished or dead, so that’s where we’ll put it for now.)

Meanwhile, Sotto said, “I know for a fact, once it is archived, it is dead.”