QUEZON CITY (MindaNews / 05 July 2026) — The impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte begins on Monday. All eyes will be on the Philippine Senate. But for Mindanao, this is no distant Manila spectacle.

Our island’s highest ranking official stands accused before senators.

Mindanawons sit on both sides of this divide. The prosecution panel itself carries Mindanao voices. There are several Mindanawon senators.

Their presence complicates any simple regional narrative. This trial cuts through our island’s political heart.

The lawyers in the Impeachment Court

Batangas Representative Gerville Luistro leads the House prosecutors. She chairs the House Committee on Justice. Her committee first evaluated the impeachment complaints. It determined their sufficiency in form and substance. The plenary then endorsed the articles to the Senate.

Look closely at the Mindanawons among the prosecutors.

Bukidnon Representative Jonathan Keith Flores joined the panel. Yet he abstained from voting on the articles.

He cited the sentiments of his Mindanao constituents. His abstention reflects our region’s divided loyalties.

Cagayan de Oro Representative Lordan Suan also serves. He represents the Mindanao bloc within the prosecution.

Dinagat Islands Representative Kaka Bag-ao brings rare experience. She prosecuted Chief Justice Renato Corona in 2012. Human rights law shaped her long public career. Lanao del Sur’s Zia Alonto Adiong serves as spokesperson. Moro Mindanao thus has a voice in this prosecution.

The panel includes seasoned Luzon and Visayas legislators. Manila’s Joel Chua investigated the confidential funds controversy. Iloilo’s Lorenz Defensor leads the grave threats charges.

Leila de Lima brings prosecutorial and constitutional expertise. She once served as Senator and Justice Secretary. Human rights lawyer Chel Diokno strengthens the team. Ysabel Zamora, Ramon Gutierrez, and Terry Ridon complete it.

Private prosecutors reinforce the House panel’s legal firepower. Marforth Fua and Lorna Kapunan were presidential legal counsels.

Theodore Te once spoke for the Supreme Court. Sonya Benemerito-Castillo, Mae Divinagracia, and Amando Ligutan assist. Established law firms lend additional trial advocacy expertise.

Across the aisle stands a formidable defense team. Most come from the Fortun, Narvasa, and Salazar offices. They defend Davao’s most powerful political family.

Philip Sigfrid Fortun leads with four decades’ experience. He graduated from the UP College of Law. Gregorio Narvasa II co-founded the firm with him. His father was Chief Justice Andres Narvasa.

Sheila Sison serves as the team’s lead counsel. She is an award-winning criminal litigation specialist. Tax expert Kristine Ferrer handles the financial questions. That matters given the confidential funds allegations. She has appeared before the Court of Tax Appeals.

Younger associates round out the defense bench. Their fields span litigation, taxation, labor, and arbitration.

Former DepEd undersecretary Michael Wesley Poa speaks for them.

The issues before the court

What must the impeachment court actually resolve?

Four articles of impeachment frame the entire trial. Each raises questions that Mindanao must watch closely. The answers will shape our island’s political future.

Article One concerns alleged misuse of confidential funds. Some 612.5 million pesos are at issue. The funds went to her office and DepEd.

Article Two alleges unexplained wealth and nondisclosure of assets. Her tax records sit inside a disputed BIR box.

Article Three alleges bribery of Department of Education officials. Prosecutors say procurement laws were allegedly circumvented.

Article Four covers her assassination remarks against Marcos.

The pretrial conference ran five days from June 18. Both camps marked thousands of documents as evidence. The defense insisted on marking its documents separately. Facts were stipulated and witness lists were finalized. A pretrial order was promulgated last Monday.

The numbers tell the story of this trial. The prosecution will present 57 witnesses. The defense listed 96, with 17 shared witnesses.

Reserve or surprise witnesses remain allowed under the rules. Parties must disclose witnesses three days before testimony.

The defense list even includes prosecution-linked personalities. Among them are Antonio Trillanes and Ramil Madriaga.

The court approved 92 trial days in total. The prosecution gets 62 days, the defense 30. Trial begins July 6 at two in the afternoon.

Sessions run Monday to Wednesday until July 27. Afterward, hearings shift to Tuesday through Thursday at 3 p.m.

I suspect the trial will continue beyond Christmas and the voting will happen in the first quarter of 2027.

The impeachment trial of Sara Duterte will converge with the trial of her father Rodrigo Duterte in the International Criminal Court where he is facing charges of crimes against humanity.

The Mindanao senator-judges

Sixteen of twenty-four votes are needed to convict. Every senator-judge therefore carries enormous weight. Three of them come from Mindanao itself.

Davao’s Bong Go remains the family’s staunchest ally.

Davao’s Ronald dela Rosa once led the drug war. He now hides from an ICC arrest warrant. He missed the oath-taking of senator-judges last May.

His participation in the trial remains legally uncertain. Allies pushed rules allowing remote attendance and voting. The minority walked out to block that change. Bukidnon’s Migz Zubiri joined that walkout himself. He called the proposed rule change a travesty.

Zubiri’s journey mirrors Mindanao’s own divided heart. He accused the Mindanao bloc of betraying him. He now serves as majority leader under Gatchalian.

The Senate presidency itself became a battlefield. A May coup installed Duterte ally Alan Peter Cayetano. He opened the impeachment court on May 18. Senators then ousted him and elevated Sherwin Gatchalian.

Gatchalian, one of the most competent and fairest senators I know, now presides over the impeachment court. He signed the pretrial notice and pretrial order. He summoned Duterte to appear on July 6.

The presiding officer rules on motions and objections. Senator-judges must course their questions through him.

Empty seats, uncertain arithmetic

Some senator-judges may never take their seats. Jinggoy Estrada sits in detention for plunder. The charge involves alleged flood control kickbacks. He cannot participate and vote while detained.

Marcoleta now faces his own non-bailable plunder case. It covers 75 million pesos in undeclared donations. His arrest would likely sideline him too.

Marcoleta calls the case timed to exclude him. The Iglesia ni Cristo rallied in his defense but the protest fizzled out as it was misconceived. You do not rally to protect corrupt politicians.

Escudero and Villanueva face possible plunder charges as well. Their cases reportedly may move more slowly. Both crossed over to the new Senate majority.

These absences raise a profound constitutional question.

The Constitution requires two-thirds of all Senate members. Conventionally, that means sixteen of twenty-four votes.

An emerging view reads the requirement differently. Retired Justice Antonio Carpio supports this interpretation. Suspended or detained senators should not be counted. The threshold would then fall below sixteen.

Luistro argues the base should be participating senator-judges.

Lacson warns of an absurdity if many are jailed. Nine detentions would make sixteen votes mathematically impossible. The Supreme Court may ultimately settle this dispute.

Mindanao’s stake

What does all this mean for Mindanao?

The Vice President drew massive votes from our island. Now her fate rests with twenty-four senator-judges.

Some Mindanawons see the trial as political persecution. Others see accountability long owed to the public.

Come July 6, the evidence will finally speak. Ninety-two trial days stretch before the nation.

Mindanao is not merely watching this trial. Mindanao is inside it, arguing with itself.

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Dean Antonio Gabriel La Viña is from Cagayan de Oro and is a professor of law, philosophy, politics and governance in several universities, including in Mindanao. He has been a human rights lawyer for 36 years. He is currently the managing partner of La Viña Zarate and Associates, a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, and Chair of the Jurisprudence and Legal Philosophy Department of the Philippine Judicial Academy.
He is also founding president of the Movement Against Disinformation and the founding chair of the Mindanao Climate Justice Resource Facility and the Mindanao Center for Scholarships, Sports, and Spirituality.)