Lacson: P26-M budget still there for Sara trial
The budget is ready should it finally happen—forthwith, of course.
The Senate has at least P26 million still available from last year’s budget to fund the trial of Vice President Sara Duterte if ever she’s impeached, again, by the House of Representatives, according to Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson.
Lacson heads the Senate committee on accounts, which oversees the funds for the expenses and activities of the chamber.
“There’s at least P27M under the 2025 GAA (General Appropriations Act), of which around P500,000 was spent when last year’s Articles of Impeachment against VP Duterte was transmitted to the Senate,” he said in a Viber message on Tuesday.
Lacson was referring to the first impeachment proceedings against Duterte which reached the Senate in February 2025 but was stopped by the Supreme Court on technicalities, mainly for violation of the one-year ban on filing complaints.
Good for 2 years
The Senate, with Sen. Francis Escudero as president, later voted to have the articles of impeachment archived. At the time, Lacson abstained from voting while then Senate President Vicente Sotto III was among the four senators who voted against the archiving.
Lacson on Tuesday explained that “since the fund is good for two years under ‘continuing appropriations,’ [the] Senate is financially able and ready to conduct the trial if and when the articles of impeachment are transmitted.”
He noted that the P27 million in the 2025 GAA was specifically allotted for the impeachment trial of Duterte.
No need for new robes
Of the amount, Lacson said, about P500,000 had already been spent to procure “60” crimson velvet robes for the senator judges costing P7,000 each, as well as “other accessories or items.”
The senator pointed out, however, that he was not yet chair of the accounts committee back then. The post then belonged to Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano.
Meanwhile, Sotto on Tuesday said the chamber, should it again convene as an impeachment court, no longer need to spend on new robes for the senator judges.
“The ones they had last year will do,” the Senate chief said in a message.
The House committee on justice evaluating the impeachment complaints against Duterte is set to hold its final hearing on Wednesday to determine if there is probable cause to put her on trial.
