CHICKENPIE.The crime was threatening to kill the President. The trial was pending. Someone had to do something.
So they overthrew the Senate President.
Not the accused. The referee.
Cayetano unseated Sotto on a 13-9 vote. The Senate — which was supposed to be the courtroom for Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial — spent the weekend staging its own internal coup instead. The official reason, translated from press conference language, is “reorganization.” The unofficial reason is that the new Senate President is a known Duterte ally.
The math isn’t complicated. If you can’t beat the case, change the courtroom. If you can’t change the courtroom, replace the referee before the gavel drops.
Sara Duterte was impeached for the second time in 2026 — 257 out of 318 House votes — for charges that include misusing public funds and threatening to kill President Marcos, the First Lady, and a sitting congressman. The first impeachment didn’t stick because the Senate ran out of session days. Or courage. Depending on who you ask.
The case was supposed to go to the Senate immediately. The Senate immediately held an election.
This is not unusual. This is not unprecedented. This is just Tuesday in Philippine politics, wearing its Sunday barong.
What’s remarkable is the efficiency. In most countries, you wait for a verdict before staging a cover-up. Here, we rearranged the appeals court while the lower court was still clapping. The accused is still the Vice President. The charges are on record. Two hundred fifty-seven hands went up, loudly. And the Senate told us — with the quiet confidence of someone who changed your lock while you were still inside — that the trial will proceed on their schedule.
That schedule is: when they say so.
There’s a version of this country where 257 votes means something final. Where impeachment isn’t just the opening scene of a longer drama.
That version is not this one.
Sara Duterte is still Vice President. She’s already running for president in 2028. The Senate now has a president who wants to be her friend. And the charges — the ones about threatening to kill three people, one of whom is currently the President of the Republic — are still out there, waiting for a trial that will happen on a schedule that no one has explained to anyone.
The funniest part? The 13-9 coup vote to install the new Senate President was almost certainly more competitive than the 257-61 impeachment vote it was designed to nullify.
Some of the most organized governance in this country is the governance of avoiding governance.
