Senator Alan Peter Cayetano on Wednesday emphasized that the Senate must align its actions with the Supreme Court’s decision voiding the impeachment case against the Vice President, saying that doing so is both a matter of legal compliance and fairness.

The SC ruling declared the impeachment “void ab initio,” meaning it never legally existed.

Cayetano said this means there is technically nothing for the Senate to dismiss, but the chamber should still take a formal step to ensure the matter doesn’t remain “floating” and to prevent the VP from being under a perpetual impeachment cloud.

“Theoretically, if we do not do anything today, we are following the Supreme Court decision,” the lawyer senator explained during the plenary session on August 6.

“However, human nature is that if we do not do anything, people will say it’s pending. It is also fair to the VP that we dispose of this,” he continued.

Cayetano also explained why the High Court did not apply the doctrine of operative fact, a legal principle that allows acts done under a law or ruling, later declared void, to remain valid if undoing them would cause injustice.

He said the one-year bar on impeachment had been circumvented, and applying the doctrine would have rewarded that circumvention.

“Since may finding ang Supreme Court na cinircumvent y’ung one-year bar, hindi ka ngayon pwedeng mag-operative fact dahil para mong nire-reward y’ung circumvention,” he said.

Framing the matter as a constitutional duty, Cayetano called the 1987 Constitution “the soul and a covenant of this country” and warned that defying the SC ruling would risk a constitutional crisis.

“May option ba tayo not to follow the Constitution? In actuality, as an institution, we have to follow, hindi po ba?” he said.

To avoid ambiguity, Cayetano proposed that the Senate’s motion clearly states it will “obey” or “follow” the SC decision, effectively including any future changes in the Court’s ruling.

“If the SC reconsiders, then we will follow. If they don’t reconsider, we will still follow,” he said.

Later in the session, the Senate took up a motion to archive the articles of impeachment against the Vice President. If approved, this would effectively end the case unless the Supreme Court reverses itself in response to the motion for reconsideration filed by the House of Representatives.