Let’s be clear from the start: what some are calling a “win” for VP Sara Duterte with reference to the reaffirmation of the ruling of the Supreme Court (SC) on the first impeachment case against her is nothing of the sort. It’s not a political victory yet. It’s not vindication. It’s a timeout, the political equivalent of being allowed to catch your breath while the executioner sharpens the blade or the political guillotine is on pause.
Note that the impeachment complaint against Sarah, passed by the House and transmitted to the Senate, was declared unconstitutional by the SC in July 2025 and, in a recent ruling, reaffirmed that it was barred by the one-year rule. The Court’s ruling emphasized due process and timing required under the Constitution and effectively stopped the Senate trial before it could proceed.
With the one-year impeachment ban set to expire around February 6, the same political personalities and, yes, in cahoots with their ever-reliable enablers in the Senate, are already circling. They smell blood, or at least opportunity. And opportunity, in Philippine politics, is rarely wasted.
Freshly lodged two impeachment complaints against Sara are not about sudden moral awakenings or newfound devotion to constitutional purity, but the starting gun for a new phase of political warfare. They are about timing, containment, and pre-emption. The calendar matters more than the charges. The process matters more than the proof. This is not accountability as justice; it is a demolition strategy against Sara as 2028 approaches.
Anyone paying attention knows the subtext: 2028. Every move today is a dress rehearsal for that presidential election. The goal is not simply to weaken Sara Duterte, it is to stop her, by any means necessary, from winning, or even from running at all. Impeachment, especially when weaponized through procedural delay and calendar manipulation, is the perfect tool. It doesn’t need to succeed. It just needs to linger, exhaust, and taint.
That’s why for Sara’s camp, complacency and naivety would be fatal. The coming months will be hostile, engineered, and meticulously choreographed. Expect legal-political landmines disguised as due process, moral lectures delivered by serial political opportunists, and sudden bursts of “concern for democracy” from people who treat institutions like disposable cutlery.
This is how modern political neutralization works. You don’t defeat your opponent in open combat; you bury them under paperwork, controversy, and perpetual defense. You keep them reacting instead of advancing. You turn elections into endurance tests and governance into trench warfare.
Make no mistake: this isn’t about Sara Duterte’s alleged “sins” alone. It’s about fear, fear of her numbers, fear of her base, fear of what happens if she survives long enough to face the electorate on her own terms. Impeachment is the language of that fear.
So to those in Sara’s camp, the real battle hasn’t even begun yet. Thus, in this cut-throat political game, the moment you relax is the moment the blade comes down.
Source: The Lobbyist
https://www.thelobbyist.biz/perspectives/article-details/prime%20insight/why-the-impeachment-clock-is-ticking-again-for-sara-duterte
