Closing Duterte pre-trial may erode trial legitimacy, group warns

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

Bantay Senado, the citizens’ monitoring network for the Senate impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, is calling on the Senate Impeachment Court to open the June 18 pre-trial conference to the media and the public.

The group argues that transparency in impeachment proceedings is a constitutional obligation rather than a procedural option.

The Senate Impeachment Court has notified the parties that the June 18 pre-trial conference “shall not be open to the media or public,” citing the need to give the parties “the widest freedom and latitude” in the proceedings.

Bantay Senado is strongly urging the court to reconsider that decision.

The pre-trial conference is the stage where the ground rules of the trial are established, evidence is formally marked, and witnesses are identified.

Bantay Senado maintains that these are not administrative or ministerial formalities, but consequential decisions that will shape the entire character of the proceedings, and that the Filipino public has a right to see how those decisions are made.

“The impeachment trial of a sitting Vice President is not a private legal dispute between two parties. It is a constitutional process conducted in the name of the Filipino people. Every stage of that process — including the pre-trial — must be conducted transparently. The public is not an optional participant to the proceedings,” said Cleve V. Arguelles, convenor and spokesperson of Bantay Senado.

The network said it takes no position on the merits of the case against Duterte, and that it does not side with either the prosecution or the defense.

It noted, however, that some members of the prosecution have expressed a preference for an open and public pre-trial conference, a position Bantay Senado said it firmly supports.

The group also emphasized the broader democratic stakes of the pre-trial decision, arguing that in a constitutional proceeding of this magnitude, public access is not a privilege the court may grant or withhold at its convenience, but a condition of the legitimacy of the entire impeachment trial.

“Impeachment trials and the information they present are matters of public concern. The public has the right to such information as matters of public concern, access to which is made more imperative by the state policy of full public disclosure. Closing it to the public and media without compelling constitutional justification may raise serious questions about the court’s commitment to due process and open justice. Transparency at the pre-trial stage is not incompatible with fair proceedings,” said Michael Tiu Jr., a contributing legal expert to Bantay Senado and an assistant professor at the University of the Philippines College of Law.

Bantay Senado said it is raising the concern as a citizen-monitoring body whose mandate is to ensure that the entire process, from pre-trial to verdict, is conducted openly, fairly, and in accordance with the Constitution.

The group called on the Senate Impeachment Court to immediately issue a revised notice opening the June 18 pre-trial conference to the media and the public.

The notice setting the closed-door conference was signed by acting Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian, who is serving as presiding officer of the impeachment court. The pre-trial conference is scheduled for 9 a.m. on June 18 at the Senate’s Recto Room in Pasay City.

The dispute over public access comes ahead of the trial proper. The impeachment trial is set to begin on July 6.

The House of Representatives impeached Duterte in February 2025 and again in May 2026, making her the first official in Philippine history to be impeached twice. The articles accuse her of culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust, bribery, and other high crimes, with allegations centered on the alleged misuse of confidential funds and unexplained wealth.

The Senate convened as an impeachment court on May 18, 2026. Both the House prosecution panel and Duterte’s defense team submitted their respective pre-trial briefs ahead of the June 15 deadline, with the prosecution signaling it would present more than 30 witnesses.

House prosecutors have separately sought clarification from the Senate on whether the pre-trial conference will be closed to the public and the media.

The proceedings are also unfolding against a contested Senate leadership backdrop. Gatchalian signed the pre-trial notice as presiding officer after a 12-member majority ousted his predecessor, Alan Peter Cayetano, on June 3, a result the Cayetano bloc continues to dispute.