Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero and House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez retain the top leadership of the two chambers as the 20th Congress opens.

Escudero was elected Senate president for a second term with the backing of 19 senators, against Sen. Vicente “Tito” Sotto III’s 5 votes.

Sen. Joel Villanueva, who nominated Escudero, said he “guided the Senate in the right direction” when it was “under attack because of conflicting views on impeachment.”

The Senate briefly convened an impeachment court last month, only to send the case back to the House of Representatives hours later, questioning its constitutionality.

Just days before the Senate opened its new session with the vice president’s political future hanging in the balance, the Supreme Court on Friday blocked Duterte’s impeachment trial, saying it violated a constitutional provision against multiple impeachment proceedings within a single year.

While, Romualdez, who is staying as House speaker with the backing of 269 colleagues and 34 others abstaining, maintained that “the power to initiate impeachment is the exclusive domain of this Chamber.”

The Court may close a case, but it cannot close a cause. The pursuit of accountability is not a moment — it is a mandate,” Romualdez said in his speakership acceptance speech.

Romualdez said that as Speaker, “I will be here — not just to preside, but to protect.”

The House of Representatives on Sunday said it will file a motion for reconsideration before the Supreme Court on its ruling that the fourth impeachment complaint filed against Duterte was unconstitutional.

Meanwhile, Escudero urged his colleagues to “speak not to score political points, but to make a point and to debate, not to destroy each other, but to build the nation together.”