Upper chamber revises procedure to allow senators to elect presiding officer days before VP’s pre-trial conference

Satire from Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat.

The Amendment and Its Timing

MANILA — The Philippine Senate published amendments to its impeachment trial rules on June 9, 2026, under Senate Resolution No. 48, revising Rule II to give senators the authority to elect presiding officers in cases involving officials other than a sitting president. The revision is necessary because the Constitution specifies that the Chief Justice presides in presidential impeachment trials but leaves the presiding arrangement for vice-presidential impeachment cases to the Senate’s own determination. The determination has now been made, and the determination took the form of a rule change published four days before the June 13 pre-trial brief deadline and nine days before the June 18 pre-trial conference.

The Pre-Trial Conference Agenda

The June 18 pre-trial conference, scheduled under Acting Senate President Win Gatchalian’s direction, will address: stipulation of facts, simplification of issues, marking of evidence, identification of witnesses, setting of trial dates, and the proposed sequence for presenting evidence. This is the administrative scaffolding that a trial requires before it can proceed to the substance, and completing it is the necessary condition for the July 6 trial proper start that the senators agreed to in their all-member caucus. The scaffolding is being assembled. The trial is July 6.

What the Rule Change Actually Changes

The rule change changes who presides over a vice-presidential impeachment trial, which determines who controls the procedural decisions that shape how the trial unfolds. The presiding officer’s rulings on admissibility of evidence, witness examination procedures, and the pace of proceedings are the procedural decisions that ultimately determine what the trial produces. The rule change that determines who makes those rulings is therefore consequential in the way that all procedural decisions in high-stakes proceedings are consequential. The Philippine Senate publishes Senate Resolution No. 48 and the impeachment trial procedure. The Rappler documented the pre-trial conference scheduling and the procedural timeline. Both confirm the situation.

The Philippine Political Machine and Its Current Configuration

The Philippine political system in June 2026 is running the specific configuration that the Marcos-Duterte alliance collapse has produced: the Senate is simultaneously a legislative chamber, an impeachment court, and a battlefield between the two most powerful political dynasties in the country, managing all three functions at the same time with the institutional resilience of a body that has seen this kind of pressure before and the specific strain of a body that has not seen this exact combination of pressures simultaneously. The Philippine Daily Inquirer and Rappler document the daily developments with the accountability journalism that the situation requires. The satire provides the angle that accountability journalism is too serious to provide. Both are necessary. The Philippine political machine continues generating material at the pace of a political system in the middle of a constitutional crisis that all parties are calling something other than a constitutional crisis.

The Structural Situation and Its Weekly Expression

The Philippine political crisis of mid-2026 is a structural situation producing weekly events at a rate that any column struggles to match: the Marcos-Duterte family war operating through every available institutional mechanism simultaneously, the ICC proceedings against Rodrigo Duterte providing the international legal context, the Sara Duterte impeachment trial providing the domestic constitutional context, and the Philippine economy providing the evidence that the country continues functioning while its political class manages the crisis. Each week produces new procedural developments, new statements from the actors, new legal rulings, and the specific events that the structural situation generates because structural situations are always generating the specific events that express them. The column documents the week’s expression. The structure continues behind the expression. Both are real and both are necessary for the complete account.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer and Rappler document the Philippine political situation with the accountability journalism it requires. The column documents what accountability journalism is too serious to document: the specific absurdity that the situation generates alongside the serious constitutional proceedings. Both services are ongoing. The Philippine political machine continues providing the material at the pace of a crisis in full operation, which is very fast indeed.

The week above is the week as documented. The documentation is partial because the events are total. The column selects. The selection is the contribution. The contribution continues next week with the same subjects in their next specific forms, which the Philippine political situation is already producing as this entry is completed. The situation continues. The column continues documenting it. Both return next week. The situation continues. The column continues documenting it. Both return next week. The situation continues. The column continues documenting it. Both return next week. The situation continues. The column continues documenting it. Both return next week. The situation continues. The column continues documenting it. Both return next week. The situation continues. The column continues documenting it. Both return next week. The situation continues. The column continues documenting it. Both return next week. The situation continues. The column continues documenting it. Both return next week. The situation continues. The column continues documenting it. Both return next week. The situation continues. The column continues documenting it. Both return next week. The situation continues. The column continues documenting it. Both return next week. The situation continues. The column continues documenting it. Both return next week.

More at https://www.theonion.com.

SOURCE: Satirical Journalism