ASEANEWS HEADLINE-VP Du30 IMPEACHMENT | MANILA: Can Senate junk VP impeachment trial?
Impeachment complainants and Tindig Pilipinas representatives (from left) Akbay- an president Ra- faela David, Kiko Aquino Dee, Leila de Lima and Fr. Flavie Villanueva hold a press conference in Diliman, Quezon City yesterday to call on the Sen- ate to hasten the impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte.
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PH Senators debate on whether VP impeachment trial can cross over to 20th Congress | ANC
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Bato proposes ‘de facto dismissal’ of case
MANILA, Philippines — An unsigned draft Senate resolution is being circulated, seeking the “de facto dismissal” of the impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte without subjecting her to a trial.
Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, a staunch supporter of the Dutertes, confirmed to Senate reporters yesterday that his legislative staff prepared the draft titled “Resolution declaring the de facto dismissal of the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Zimmerman Duterte by operation of the 1987 Constitution.”
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“It came from my office,” he said.
Metadata of the draft resolution seen by The STAR showed that it was authored by a legal staff in Dela Rosa’s office and created June 2.
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“That is my own initiative. My legislative staff researched for the resolution,” Dela Rosa said, adding that there are two other drafts prepared by other senators, whom he did not name.
The Senate will “automatically take it up on the floor” after the draft resolution is finalized and filed, he said.
“We are still asking around and consulting with others, until we get a sizable number of support. We are still evaluating it,” he added.
Senate President Francis Escudero downplayed the impact of the draft resolution.?
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“There is no such resolution filed or pending in the Senate now. Whatever resolution is making the rounds – which does not even have an author – is a mere scrap of paper unless it is filed, and debated and voted upon,” Escudero said in an ambush interview yesterday before the ceremonial signing of the bicameral report of his pet bill, the proposed Government Optimization Act, a priority measure.
However, Escudero said the senators may act upon the resolution if it is filed within the four remaining session days before their June 13 sine die adjournment.
“If someone will make a motion, it can be acted on, debated and voted upon. If no one will, then it will not be acted on. The Senate is a deliberative body, whose plenary is supreme. It will go through the process of voting if such a resolution is filed,” he explained.?The draft resolution said that because the Senate leadership set the reading of the charges on June 11, just two days before the June 13 sine die adjournment, “this leaves the current Congress with no sufficient time to fully deliberate and resolve the Articles of Impeachment.”
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The resolution also alleged that the impeachment “cannot cross over to the incoming 20th Congress, which will convene on the fourth Monday of July 2025.”
Two senators confirmed seeing versions of the draft resolution, which sought the dismissal of the impeachment due to the Senate’s failure to constitute itself as an impeachment court more than a hundred days since the Articles of Impeachment were transmitted by the House of Representatives.
“It has been in circulation since Monday. I saw it when someone let me read it,” Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada said yesterday.
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Estrada said he will have to consult with his lawyers if he will support such a resolution that seeks to dismiss the impeachment by mere majority voting to adopt it.
“There are rumors already about such a resolution going around, and it was confirmed last Monday. I don’t think anyone has signed already. It is not yet filed, so that does not carry any weight,” he noted.
The President’s sister, Sen. Imee Marcos, said it is just “one of three drafts I saw, different versions, all of which aim to seek an effective and legal solution, without loopholes.”
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‘Prepare to be disappointed’
Senate minority leader Koko Pimentel yesterday advised the public to set themselves up for disappointment because there will be no time to hold the impeachment trial of Vice President Duterte before the end of the 19th Congress.
“Sorry to disappoint everybody, there will be no trial action in the 19th Congress,” Pimentel told ANC.
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He said the Senate will violate its own rules and the 1987 Constitution if it fails to convene the impeachment court during the remaining days of the 19th Congress.
“The Senate could convict or acquit the impeached official. It is not prohibited to acquit. There is nothing in the Constitution which says trial shall forthwith proceed and always find the impeached official guilty,” Pimentel said.
But Pimentel said the Senate should fulfill its constitutional duty to proceed to trial “forthwith” once it receives the Articles of Impeachment.
“If the Senate does not hold a trial, it will violate the Constitution,” Pimentel said.
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If following the Senate leadership’s position to read the charges and convene the impeachment court on June 11, two days before the sine die adjournment, Vice President Duterte will have 10 calendar days to respond to the summons, and the House prosecution panel five days from receipt of the impeached official’s answer to reply.
“The window of time is tight either way,” Pimentel said.
He also cast doubt on the legal arguments of Dela Rosa’s draft resolution, which cited the 2008 Supreme Court case “Neri v Senate.”
The draft resolution alleged that the case confirms that the impeachment complaint cannot cross over to the 20th Congress.
However, Pimentel said it was “flawed logic,” as he reiterated his position that the Supreme Court case actually supports the claim that the impeachment can cross over to the next Congress as it describes the Senate as a “continuing body.”
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“The quotation of the constitutional provision is not accurate,” he told The STAR yesterday, referring to a portion which misquoted Article XI of the 1987 Constitution on the “Accountability of Public Officers,” which lays down the process of impeachment.
‘Self-created crisis’
For failing to immediately act on Duterte’s impeachment, the Senate essentially created a “crisis” that could very well reach the Supreme Court (SC), a former lawmaker said yesterday.
Former Akbayan party-list Rep. Barry Gutierrez, who also teaches at the University of the Philippines College of Law, said the Senate will set a bad precedent if it passes a resolution that will “de facto” dismiss Duterte’s impeachment without holding a trial.
“Those perspectives are very troubling,” Gutierrez said in Filipino during an interview with “Storycon” on One News.
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“For four months, the Senate did not do anything. To a certain extent, it is a self-created crisis that the Senate is now claiming it is facing in terms of time remaining,” he added.
The House of Representatives transmitted the Articles of Impeachment in February, just before Congress went on break for the election season.
Gutierrez said he finds it “ridiculous” that senators are now concerned that an impeachment trial cannot cross over to the next Congress.
“If that is true, then they should have worked on it… you have all the time in the world, you have four months,” he pointed out.
The proposal to dismiss the impeachment due to lack of time will set a bad precedent, Gutierrez said, noting that the Constitution is clear that the impeachment can only be dealt with through a trial.
He added that a resolution dismissing the impeachment without a trial will certainly be challenged before the SC.
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Former senator and now ML party-list Rep. Leila de Lima also warned that the senators would be violating the Constitution if the draft resolution seeking to dismiss the impeachment trial will be filed.
“Every senator has the right to file anything, but the very text itself of that resolution, if that is in fact the contents of that draft resolution, this is clearly unconstitutional,” she said during a press conference in Quezon City led by the Tindig Pilipinas coalition.
“To the senators, enough with the dribbling. You are not the spectators. You are the court. Let the trial begin. And let the evidence be laid bare,” De Lima stressed.
Manila 3rd district Rep. Joel Chua, one of the 11-member House prosecution panel, also expressed his frustration over the Senate’s handling of the impeachment case.
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“That is unconstitutional for the Senate to dismiss the impeachment case without holding a trial. What I know is, under the Constitution, it is the job of the Senate to hear it. For us, Congress, (our job) is to prosecute. I cannot surmise how they will dismiss it without first conducting the trial and just through a resolution,” he said.
Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Arlene Brosas, for her part, slammed Escudero for continuing to show utter disinterest in initiating the trial.
“The plenary should not vote whether to proceed with the impeachment or not. This is not a matter of preference. It is a constitutional mandate that must be fulfilled without delay or evasion,” she stressed.
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NAGKAISA chair Sonny Matula said the Senate’s constitutional duty to try an impeachment cannot be defeated by procedural maneuvers.
“Accountability cannot be erased by delay. No Senate rule or resolution can override the plain command of the Constitution,” he explained. – Janvic Mateo, Jose Rodel Clapano, Christine Boton, Mayen
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