Senate to Appoint Escudero as Impeachment Presiding Officer

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he will support whoever the Philippine Senate formally elects to preside over the imminent impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, as senators moved toward selecting a lawmaker who oversaw a previous, unsuccessful attempt to try her. Senator Panfilo Lacson stated that a consensus has been reached among the majority bloc to elect Senator Francis "Chiz" Escudero as the presiding officer when the trial formally begins on July 6.

The Senate is scheduled to convene as an impeachment court that day, following a pretrial conference that commenced on Thursday, June 18. The pretrial stage involves the marking of evidence and the simplification of issues between the prosecution and defense teams. The House of Representatives, which voted in May to impeach the Vice President, has granted its prosecution panel full authority to act independently in these pretrial proceedings.

Marcos, speaking in Russia, dismissed past criticisms of Escudero's performance during the 2025 impeachment proceedings. He noted that the rules adopted for the current trial are based on those Escudero wrote last year and expressed confidence in his ability to run the...