Acting as impeachment court, the Senate on Tuesday (June 10) voted to return to the House of Representatives the Articles of Impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte.

At the same time, presiding officer Francis Escudero issued a writ of summons to Duterte directing her to file within a non-extendible period of ten days her answer to the complaint.

With 18 affirmative votes and five negative votes, the impeachment court approved the motion that asks the Lower House to certify that it committed no violation of Article XI, Section 3 of the Constitution providing that “No impeachment proceedings shall be initiated against the same official more than once within a period of one year,” including the filing of the first three impeachment complaints against Duterte.

The motion also ordered the House of Representatives of the 20th Congress to “communicate to the Senate that it is willing and ready to pursue the impeachment complaint against” the vice president.

Actually, the motion was an amended version raised by Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa who sought the dismissal of the impeachment case for being constitutionally infirm.

Dela Rosa insisted that the Lower House violated the Constitution that allows only the filing of one impeachment complaint per year against an impeachable official like Duterte.

Senator-Judge Alan Peter Cayetano introduced the amendment to the motion that canceled the move to dismiss the case and instead ask the Lower House to guarantee that no violation of the Constitution was committed in filing the impeachment case.

Three senator judges, namely Minority Leader Koko Pimentel, Risa Hontiveros and Grace Poe, assailed the motion as dangerous and aimed at muddling the proceedings.

Explaining his “no vote”, Pimentel stated that the motion “contained dangerous language that is susceptible to many interpretation”.

Hontiveros raised the same apprehension, stressing that the motion “introduces unnecessary ambiguity to the already politically charged” impeachment case.

In defending her decision to support the motion, Sen. Imee Marcos noted that aside from the impeachment complaint, critics of Duterte have filed numerous complaints against her in various forums.

“Accountability ba talaga ang pakay nila?” asked Marcos as she accused those behind the impeachment case as being motivated by political ambitions.

Escudero stressed that in approving the motion, the impeachment court does not intend to dismiss the case against Duterte. He stressed that the intention was to give the complainants or the Lower House the chance to explain constitutional issues raised against the case it filed.