Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano announced that the Upper House will formally begin the impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte next week as it is set to convene as impeachment court on May 18.

"Under Article 11, section three of the Constitution, the Secretariat has been directed to include the Articles of Impeachment in the calendar for ordinary business for referral to the impeachment court, which shall be convened on 18 may 2026, 3pm or at the possible soonest time, absent any question on the rules and procedure related to the transmitted articles," Cayetano said as he read and signed his letter to House Speaker Faustino Dy III on Thursday.

"The parties shall in due course, be directed to appear before the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court on a date to be determined subsequently, we trust the foregoing is in order," he added.

Cayetano stressed that there is no reason that the Senate will not be able convene the impeachment court on Monday, unless other senators will stand for the amendment on the impeachment rules.

"From the majority side because we had a caucus last night, I don't see any amendments to the rules so if there is going to be any, I am not saying there will be, I want to be clear, I am not accusing anyone of delay, I'm saying it won't come to the majority because we had a meeting last night, we are happy with the former rules," he said.

"However, I cannot remove the rights of every senator to stand up, but the problem is there will be a delay if the rules are amended, because it still has to be published again," he added.

After the Senate impeachment court is convened, Cayetano explained that summons will be issued and the process will move after the respondents answered.

The articles of impeachment from the House of Representative was submitted to the Senate before the chaos and shooting incidents at the Senate of the Philippines on Wednesday night. Robina Asido/PHS