Senate term-sharing may hold majority ahead of VP Sara’s impeachment trial

By Adrian H. Halili, Reporter

A PROPOSED term-sharing arrangement in the Senate is aimed at keeping the chamber’s majority bloc intact as lawmakers brace for a possible impeachment trial of Vice-President (VP) Sara Duterte-Carpio, political analysts said.

Dennis C. Coronacion, chairman of the Political Science Department at the University of Santo Tomas, said the plan is less about strengthening leadership and more about preserving unity within the majority as the Senate confronts the prospect of sitting as an impeachment court.

“The move is not really to bolster leadership but to make sure that the majority remains intact while the Senate tackles the impeachment complaint against Vice-President Sara,” he said in a Facebook Messenger chat.

He added that senators tend to decide impeachment votes based on political loyalties rather than strictly on the merits of the case, making bloc cohesion a central concern for Senate leaders.

The proposal surfaced after Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III said last week that members of the majority bloc were considering appointing Senator Loren Regina B. Legarda as Senate president toward the end of the 20^th Congress. Mr. Sotto said the arrangement was floated to head off a leadership challenge in the chamber.

The idea of rotating leadership underscores internal strains within the Senate majority, Mr. Coronacion said.

“This only shows that the majority bloc is not monolithic,” he said. “It consists of senators with diverse and sometimes conflicting interests, making it difficult for the Senate president to balance them.”

“In this case, Senator Sotto has even come to the point of being willing to give up his position just to keep the majority together,” he added.

Hansley A. Juliano, a political science lecturer at the Ateneo de Manila University, said the leadership plan highlights a deeper institutional weakness, where Senate politics remains driven by personalities rather than policies.

“Term-sharing is not unheard of,” he said in a Facebook chat. “But it reinforces the perception that Senate leadership is shaped by partisan convenience rather than policy agenda.”

Mr. Juliano said the move also appears to be a defensive measure against the possibility of a stronger pro-Duterte push in the upper chamber should impeachment proceedings advance.

“These things belie the overall hold of personality and partisan ties in an institution defined by clientelistic loyalties,” he said.

Anthony Lawrence A. Borja, an associate political science professor at De La Salle University, said the effectiveness of any term-sharing deal would depend on where Mr. Sotto and Ms. Legarda stand politically, as well as their ability to influence undecided senators.

“It is more accurate to see senators as individuals rather than fixed blocs, except for the Duterte bloc and the Liberal bloc,” he said in a Messenger chat. “Those blocs tend to remain solid, but the rest can still swing either way depending on their 2028 prospects and legislative calculations.”

Mr. Borja added that the impact of a term-sharing arrangement on legislative priorities would hinge on whether it is merely symbolic or reflects deeper disagreements within the majority.

“If it is cosmetic or based on a clear agreement on priorities, the impact on priority measures will not be as severe,” he said. If it reflects “deeper differences” between Mr. Sotto and Ms. Legarda, then it could lead to a kind of paralysis.

The maneuvering comes as impeachment efforts against Ms. Duterte regain momentum. Two impeachment complaints were filed against the Vice-President in the House of Representatives on Feb. 2, accusing her of misuse of public funds, corruption, unexplained wealth and betrayal of public trust.

The filings revive an attempt to remove Ms. Duterte from office after a previous effort stalled last year, when the Supreme Court ruled that earlier impeachment complaints violated constitutional rules.

If the House transmits articles of impeachment to the Senate, senators would be required to sit as an impeachment court, placing further strain on bloc unity and leadership stability in the upper chamber.