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MANILA: House of Representatives prosecutors said Wednesday that Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial could not be stopped despite the Senate sending the case back to them hours after convening as a court.

Prosecutors told an afternoon press briefing their case had complied strictly with the constitution, adding they would seek clarification over what they called “confusing” Senate orders.

Duterte was impeached in early February on charges of graft, corruption and an alleged assassination plot against former ally and running mate President Ferdinand Marcos.

A guilty verdict would see her removed from office and permanently barred from politics.

“No one can stop this anymore, because jurisdiction has been acquired already by the impeachment court,” said Congresswoman Gerville Luistro, pointing to the Senate’s issuing of a summons for Duterte late Wednesday night.

“There will be no... withdrawal (of the impeachment case) by the House. That is not allowed by the constitution.”

Tuesday night’s 18-5 Senate vote ordered the House to certify it had not violated the constitution by hearing three impeachment complaints before the one that ultimately went to a vote.

The constitution bars subjecting anyone to multiple impeachment proceedings within the same year.

But House member Ysabel Maria Zamora said the final impeachment complaint had “consolidated all the articles” of the first three into one.

A second order to guarantee the case would move forward after new House members take their seats on June 30 was “impossible” to fulfil as they could not speak for a future Congress, prosecutors said.

Outside the Senate, several hundred protesters gathered Wednesday, shouting slogans and pounding on the gates as they called for the body to follow through with the impeachment trial.

The Senate’s vote to remand was as much a matter of “political survival” as anything, lawyer and former senator Leila de Lima said Wednesday.

De Lima, who warned more than a week ago the Senate could move to kill the impeachment, said the specter of a still-powerful Duterte was likely on lawmakers’ minds.

“Loyalty, friendship, political survival. Maybe they are thinking the Dutertes are very much around even if the patriarch (ex-president Rodrigo Duterte) is in The Hague,” she said.

The elder Duterte has been imprisoned since March when he was arrested and transferred to the International Criminal Court to face charges tied to his deadly drug war.

His daughter has been widely mooted as a presidential candidate in 2028 should she survive the impeachment process.

Senators “were trying to protect their political ambitions,” agreed Congresswoman France Castro, who endorsed an early impeachment complaint against the vice president.

Asked at Wednesday’s press briefing if he believed the Senate was deliberately delaying the trial, Congressman Keith Flores said the answer was clear.

“I cannot speak for everyone but for me, yes.”

HELSINKI: Finland on Wednesday summoned Russia’s charge d’affaires for talks, a day after a Russian military aircraft was suspected of violating Finnish airspace, the foreign ministry said.

Finland’s defense ministry said on Tuesday that it believed a Russian military aircraft had violated Finnish airspace off the coast of Porvoo, east of the capital Helsinki.

The foreign ministry said it would provide more details after the talks.

The incident came only weeks after a similar incident, which was also followed by a summoning of Russia’s diplomatic representative.

Finland, which joined NATO in 2023 after Moscow’s fully-fledged invasion of Ukraine a year earlier, shares a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border with Russia.

“An investigation into the alleged violation of airspace was launched immediately,” Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen said of Tuesday’s incident, adding that the coast guard would head the inquiry.

Moscow has repeatedly warned Finland of possible repercussions over its decision to join NATO, amid heightened tensions.

Hakkanen said in mid-May that Finland was “closely monitoring and assessing Russia’s activities and intentions.”

He was commenting after the New York Times published satellite images appearing to show an expansion of Russian military infrastructure near the border.