Sara Duterte impeachment trial: defense opens Nov 9, 24 witnesses

Key takeaways

• The Sara Duterte impeachment trial resumes in the Philippine Senate on Monday, Nov 9, 2026, at 10 a.m. Manila time (02:00 UTC), when Vice President Duterte's defense begins presenting evidence, according to the court's schedule reported by GMA News and DZRH.
• Only Article II, which alleges unexplained wealth and incomplete asset declarations, is still being tried after the Senate impeachment court accepted the prosecution's withdrawal of the other three articles in October 2026.
• The defense has lined up 24 witnesses, including officials from eight banks, Daily Tribune reported on Nov 5, 2026.
• Presiding officer Francis "Chiz" Escudero restored the sub judice gag order on all four articles in a decision dated Nov 6, 2026, Daily Tribune reported.
• The court has set eight November trial days: Nov 9-13, 19, 20 and 23, 2026. A Supreme Court petition challenging the rule on how many votes are needed to convict was still pending as of Nov 4, 2026.

Sara Duterte impeachment trial: what happens from Nov 9, 2026

After a recess of nearly a month, Vice President Sara Duterte's lawyers take the floor in the Senate impeachment court on Monday, Nov 9, 2026, with a list of 24 witnesses and a single remaining charge to answer: Article II, on alleged unexplained wealth.

This explainer updates our Oct 30, 2026 guide to the trial's vote math. Since then, the defense has filed its witness list, the court has confirmed its November calendar, the gag order on the case has been restored, and the government's lawyer has asked the Supreme Court to dismiss a challenge to the conviction threshold. Each point below is attributed to the court or to the news organization that reported it.

Which charge is left?

The House of Representatives impeached Duterte on May 11, 2026 by a vote of 257-25-9, and the articles reached the Senate on May 13, 2026, according to GMA News' trial timeline. The prosecution later withdrew three of the four articles, and the Senate court approved the withdrawal in a decision promulgated on Oct 13, 2026, Daily Tribune reported.

The dropped articles, as summarized by Daily Tribune on Nov 6, 2026, concerned alleged misuse of confidential funds at the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education (Article I), alleged bribery at the Department of Education (Article III), and alleged grave threats against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Marcos and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez (Article IV).

Article II remains. According to Daily Tribune's Nov 5, 2026 report, it accuses Duterte of accumulating wealth out of proportion to her lawful income, of not fully disclosing assets and liabilities in her statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN), and of holding business interests that a vice president is not allowed to have. The prosecution's financial forensic witness, lawyer Alexander Cabrera, testified to findings of at least P817.8 million in hidden wealth, Daily Tribune reported on Nov 1, 2026. Those are allegations; Duterte's side has not yet presented its evidence, and the defense has called the withdrawal of the other articles "completely unfair," according to Daily Tribune.

Who are the 24 defense witnesses?

The defense first listed 25 names, but law professor Ralph Sarmiento, who had been slated to testify first, declined in order to keep his constitutional law scholarship independent, Daily Tribune reported on Nov 5, 2026. That left 24 witnesses, grouped as follows in the same report:

Source: Daily Tribune, Nov 5, 2026. The defense wants certified true copies of the bank correspondence, and its subpoena requests for the Nov 9-13, 2026 hearings are subject to approval by Escudero as presiding officer, according to court spokesperson Regie Tongol as cited by Daily Tribune.

The bank testimony is the part of the defense case that brings some of the country's largest lenders into the proceedings. The report did not say what the bank officials are expected to say beyond confirming the correspondence, and Bullquill has not independently verified the content of those letters.

The November 2026 trial calendar

Escudero released the November schedule on Oct 13, 2026, GMA News reported. He said budget hearings, an ASEAN-related break and other holidays would cost the court eight available trial days in November. Manila time (PHT) is UTC+8.

Sources: GMA News and DZRH, both Oct 13, 2026. Hours for Nov 10, 12 and 13, 2026 are from DZRH; GMA described those days as whole-day sittings from 10 a.m.

The court did not sit on Nov 14-18, 2026 under this calendar, and GMA News listed an ASEAN-related break among the reasons for lost trial days. For how the Philippine Stock Exchange handles trading in that week, see our note on PSE trading during the ASEAN Summit. The budget hearings that compete for senators' time are covered in our explainer on the Philippines' 2027 budget in the Senate.

Why the gag order was restored on Nov 6, 2026

When the three articles were withdrawn on Oct 13, 2026, Escudero lifted the sub judice restriction on them. In a decision dated Nov 6, 2026, he reinstated the gag order across all four articles, Daily Tribune reported. The ruling followed a defense manifestation filed on Nov 4, 2026 and an Oct 13, 2026 manifestation from Senator-judge Kiko Pangilinan, who had supported lifting the ban so the defense could answer publicly.

Under Rule XVIII of the court's rules, the prosecution, the defense and the senator-judges may not publicly discuss the merits of the case. The court said the ban covers withdrawn as well as pending articles to prevent "litigating dropped charges in the media while the Court tries Article II," according to Daily Tribune. Penalties reported by the newspaper are a public reprimand and admonition for a first violation and a P30,000 fine for each later violation; senator-judges may also be referred for an ethics complaint.

For readers, this means that the merits of the case can be discussed publicly by the parties and senator-judges only within the court's proceedings, which are the record to follow during the defense phase.

How many votes are needed to convict?

The threshold is the most contested procedural issue. On July 6, 2026, Escudero ruled that conviction required 16 votes, two-thirds of all 24 senators, according to GMA News' timeline. On Sep 23, 2026, the court set that ruling aside: 13 senator-judges backed a motion by Senator Erwin Tulfo to count two-thirds of senators "legally and factually participating in the impeachment proceedings," GMA News reported.

Daily Tribune explained on Nov 4, 2026 that if 20 senators are eligible at the verdict, the requirement would fall to 14 votes. That figure is an illustration; the actual number depends on how many senators are eligible when the vote is taken.

Senators Robin Padilla and Christopher Lawrence "Bong" Go have asked the Supreme Court to restore the 16-vote reading, arguing that the Constitution requires two-thirds of all 24 incumbent senators, according to Daily Tribune. On Nov 4, 2026, the Office of the Solicitor General, headed by Solicitor General Darlene Marie Berberabe, filed a 47-page comment asking the court to dismiss the petition as meritless and premature and opposing any restraining order. "Without such a rule, non-participating senators would be counted as though they had performed functions," the OSG said, as quoted by Daily Tribune. The petition was pending as of that report. An earlier set of petitions against the same voting rule was dismissed in late September 2026, according to a headline in GMA News' timeline.

When could there be a verdict?

No end date has been set. Lead House prosecutor Gerville Luistro, a representative from Batangas, said on Nov 1, 2026 that the trial proper could finish in November if the defense used 10 full trial days. "It is possible that this could be finished before the end of November," she said, as quoted by Daily Tribune. She added that it could run into December if more time is needed for documents and witnesses, and that the defense had earlier asked for 30 trial dates.

Escudero said on Oct 13, 2026 that the court would decide its December schedule "hopefully at the beginning of November," GMA News reported, and DZRH reported that the December calendar would depend on how many more trial dates the defense requests. Bullquill did not find a published December schedule in the reports reviewed as of Nov 7, 2026.

Why PSEi and peso watchers follow the trial

Duterte announced on Feb 18, 2026 that she would run for president in 2028, according to GMA News' timeline, so the outcome bears on the country's next political cycle. Conviction in an impeachment trial removes an official from office; the case is therefore one of the scheduled domestic political events that investors in Philippine assets can track by date.

So far, recent market reports have not linked daily moves to the trial. On Friday, Nov 6, 2026, the PSEi fell 0.28% to 5,761.95 and the peso weakened to P63.055 per US dollar from P62.97 a day earlier, Daily Tribune reported; the Philippine News Agency gave the peso close as 63.05. The peso's record low close was P64.17 on Oct 27, 2026, according to Daily Tribune. See our report on that record low.

Luis Limlingan, head of sales at Regina Capital Development Corporation, attributed the PSEi's Nov 6, 2026 decline to "weakness across global markets" and profit-taking after two sessions of gains, according to the Philippine News Agency. Michael Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation, linked the peso's move partly to global oil prices and to farm output and employment data, the agency reported. Daily Tribune pointed to caution ahead of third-quarter 2026 GDP data due the following week. Neither report mentioned the impeachment trial.

What it means

From Nov 9, 2026, the case shifts from the prosecution's allegations to the defense's documents: corporate records, property tax declarations, city payroll files and bank correspondence. With the gag order back in force on all four articles, the merits are to be argued only inside the chamber.

The two dates to watch are procedural. First, how many of the eight November trial days the defense uses, which Luistro tied to a possible November finish. Second, whether the Supreme Court acts on the Padilla-Go petition before a verdict, since that decides whether 16 votes or a smaller number, depending on eligible senators, is needed to convict. Bullquill will update this explainer when the court publishes its December schedule or the Supreme Court rules.

For more on the Philippine Senate and the vice president, see the Sara Duterte and Philippines topic pages.

This article is for information only and is not investment advice.