‘More time needed’ shallow reason for slow impeachment start

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April 2, 2025 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — It’s “shallow reasoning” for Senate President Francis Escudero to hold off the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte just because Congress is on recess and the Senate needs more time to prepare the rules, according to a former elections chief and one of the framers of the 1987 Constitution.

“Senate President Francis Escudero said he needs to prepare the rules on impeachment. What is he talking about? The Senate has already engaged in an impeachment. There are already rules. You have to edit or add or subtract a few, but they could have started earlier,” Christian Monsod said in an interview with “Storycon” on One News yesterday.

Monsod said the Senate received the Articles of Impeachment on Feb. 5, but did nothing. “It was postponed and the trial will be on end of July. Well, we will see what happens. I hope the results of the elections will be positive rather than negative,” he said.

The former elections chief stressed an impeachment trial of Duterte is a very important matter because it involves corruption and plunder of public funds.

“For me, it’s very shallow reasoning about the need for more time and so on, and there were several opinions that the Senate is on recess, therefore that cannot be interrupted. What a shallow reasoning, we are talking here about the impeachment of the Vice President, for corruption and so on,” he said.

“That is very important and I think the senators, no one wanted a trial, to start a trial before the elections because it will reveal who they are,” he added.

The Senate being a continuing body, Monsod said newly elected senators can participate in the impeachment trial of Duterte in the 20th Congress.

Monsod said the 1987 Constitution provides for separate articles on legislation and impeachment and on accountability of public officials.

“There are people who are saying the president can call a special session for impeachment, they are wrong,” he said.

He explained the Constitution states that the president can only call for a special session for discussing legislative matters and not for impeachment.

“I think they should have done that immediately,” Monsod said, referring to the convening of the Senate as an impeachment court.