The Senate, sitting an impeachment court, issued a writ of summons against Vice President Sara Duterte following its motion Tuesday night to remand the articles of impeachment to the House of Representatives.

The Office of the Vice President received the summons from the Senate around 11:05 am. Duterte is in Kuala Lumpur for a personal trip where she will meet the Philippine community on Thursday.

In a press briefing on Wednesday, Senate President and Impeachment Court Presiding Officer Francis Escudero said that the impeachment court did not lose jurisdiction over the impeachment case against Duterte despite sending it back to the House of Representatives.

"No one said that jurisdiction (over the case) was lost", Escudero said.

“It says there 'without dismissing, without terminating’, so the impeachment court retains its jurisdiction, to my mind, that’s why we issued summons,” Escudero pointed out.

On Tuesday evening, the Senate, with 18-5-0 votes, has decided to remand the articles of impeachment back to the House of Representatives, moments after the senator-judges took their oath as members of the impeachment court. Against the motion were Senators Risa Hontiveros, Nancy Binay, Grace Poe, Sherwin Gatchalian, and Koko Pimentel.

In a letter addressed to House Speaker Martin Romualdez on Wednesday, Escudero said that the presentation of the articles of impeachment, originally scheduled that day, "has been rendered moot and is thereby cancelled".

Escudero reiterated that the furthest the Senate can do is "to issue a summons because according to our rules, the defendant has ten days to submit a response" due to the lack of time.

The writ of summons was served by the Office of the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Roberto Ancan at the Office of the Vice President (OVP) in Mandaluyong City on Wednesday morning.

The OVP were given "a non-extendible period of ten days from receipt" to respond.

"So no time was wasted because we accomplished everything that was set to be done under the 19th Congress, maybe we can even save money... because the concerns related to the handling of this impeachment complaint, the concerns related to whether the 20th Congress is still interested (to continue the impeachment trial) because the 19th (Congress) cannot bind the 20th Congress, the doubts related to their compliance with the one-year ban imposed by the constitution will be answered while we wait for the resumption of the 20th Congress to start the trial", Escudero added. Marie Manalili/DMS