MANILA – The Supreme Court (SC) has dismissed petitions seeking to cite Presidential Adviser for Poverty Alleviation Lorenzo “Larry” Gadon, political analyst Richard Heydarian, and Akbayan Party-list Rep. Percival Cendaña for indirect contempt over their public remarks criticizing the high court’s 2025 ruling on the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte.

In an 87-page decision published online on Thursday, the SC dismissed for lack of merit the petitions separately filed by lawyer Ferdinand Topacio against Gadon, and by lawyers Mark Tolentino and Rolex Suplico against Heydarian and Cendaña.

“In dismissing the petitions, the Court affirms its commitment that public discussions on matters of paramount public interest should be free. There should be space for democratic discourse where the people are given the widest latitude to express their opinions without fear of being subsequently punished,” the decision read.

The high court emphasized that while it upholds freedom of political expression, it retains the authority to sanction false statements under appropriate circumstances.

“However, political speech must amount to the level of not only inciting the public to lose trust in the judiciary, but the circumstances must also be assessed as to whether the communicative impact of the speech can imminently result to the intended outcome of the speaker,” the court said.

“In wielding our inherent power of contempt, this Court should also be wary and discerning of attempts of others to suppress critical speech that feeds democracy,” it added.

The petitions stemmed from separate statements made by the three respondents following the SC’s July 25, 2025 ruling on Vice President Sara Duterte’s petition against the House of Representatives concerning multiple impeachment complaints filed against her.

In that decision, the SC ruled that the fourth impeachment complaint violated the constitutional one-year bar, which prohibits initiating impeachment proceedings against the same official more than once within a one-year period. It also held that the Senate did not acquire jurisdiction to convene as an impeachment court.

Following the ruling, Heydarian posted on the social media platform X that “Duterte has appointed as many as 13 out of 15 Supreme Court justices by 2022,” referring to former President Rodrigo Duterte.

Cendaña, meanwhile, released a video statement on Facebook claiming that the high tribunal had “reduced itself to being Supreme Coddler of the Philippines” and described the ruling as a “disastrous day for Philippine democracy.”

Gadon, for his part, referred to the Supreme Court as “tuna ng mga Duterte.”