1 month ago
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Daphne Galvez - The Philippine Star
February 16, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court has been asked to compel members of the Senate to constitute themselves into an impeachment court, even if Congress is in recess, and to “forthwith” conduct the trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
Lawyer Catalino Generillo Jr. filed before the SC on Friday a petition for mandamus, arguing that the Senate has the “inescapable constitutional duty” to “immediately” constitute itself into an impeachment court and start the trial.
He said the constitutional provisions on impeachment fixed definite periods of time within which specific acts should be done in dealing with an impeachment complaint.
According to the 1987 Constitution, a verified impeachment complaint shall be included in the order of business of the House of Representatives within 10 session days and referred to the proper committee within three session days. The committee, after voting on it, has to submit its report to the House within 60 session days from such referral.
If a verified complaint is filed by at least one-third of the House, these shall constitute the articles of impeachment “and trial by the Senate shall forthwith proceed.”
Citing the Oxford dictionary, Generillo said among the meanings of “forthwith” are “immediately,” “at once,” “instantly,” “directly,” “right away,” “straight away,” “now,” “instantaneously,” “without delay” and “promptly.”
He said the members of the Senate, individually or collectively, are not suffering from any kind of disability, physical or mental, that bars them from constituting themselves into an impeachment court and conducting the trial forthwith.
“In the final analysis, the Constitution does not allow the Senate to procrastinate during the period it is in recess, whether it shall constitute itself into an impeachment court and try the Vice President,” Generillo’s petition, filed on Feb. 14, read.
“If it were so, the framers of the Constitution wrote a useless provision. Woe to the so-called doctrine of supremacy of the Constitution,” it added.
On Feb. 5, the House of Representatives impeached Duterte and transmitted the Articles of Impeachment on the same day to the Senate. However, the Senate adjourned session that day without tackling the impeachment case.
Senate President Francis Escudero earlier said the Senate cannot legally begin the impeachment trial while Congress is on break, adding the impeachment case was not referred to the plenary before session adjourned.
Therefore, there was no basis for the Senate to convene as an impeachment court.
He also said the trial would only commence after President Marcos’ fourth State of the Nation Address on July 28 “when the new Congress already enters into its function.”
Escudero explained that even when the Senate resumes session on June 2, the senators could not hold a trial right away as they still have a lot to prepare and they would not be able to discuss anything until the 19th Congress closes on June 30.
First, they still need to adopt permanent impeachment rules – which are currently being drafted and will be debated on when session resumes.
They also still have to give Duterte time to answer the Articles of Impeachment, which can be set for 10 days, and can be extended if requested.
With her answer, Escudero said the prosecution or prosecutors would ask for a response from the chamber, and with their answers, they could be questioned again for a rejoinder.
“From there, the senators can decide to set a pre-trial as is done in court; so with the aforementioned, it will take the June 30 closing of Congress. So the senators – impeachment court judges – wearing robes will be seen in the Senate session hall by July,” he pointed out.
Escudero said if the pre-trial is held and the impeachment trial is done four times a week, the trial would be completed in two to three months.
Duterte was impeached for culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust and other high crimes.
Mum on petition
Vice President Duterte was mum on the petition asking the Supreme Court to issue a writ of mandamus that would compel the Senate to immediately start the trial of her impeachment case.
The Office of the Vice President’s media relations team did not respond to requests for a statement regarding the issue as of last night.
Duterte had earlier said she will respect the decision of the Senate on when it is deemed proper to start her trial.
“Well, that is their prerogative as a body. We have to respect the Senate on their decision because they are the ones sitting there,” Duterte said in a mix of English and Filipino at a press conference last Feb. 7.
Duterte, however, said her legal team is ready and had in fact began preparing for the trial as early as November 2023.
“We’ve already started preparing the moment France Castro announced the impeachment plans… So, November 2023, there were already our lawyers doing their work for the impeachment,” she said.
Duterte was referring to ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro, one of the main proponents of the impeachment complaint against her as well as the one who raised before the House of Representatives the issue on the OVP’s controversial spending of P125 million in confidential funds in 2022.
Duterte nonetheless said she was not keen on personally appearing at her impeachment trial as people might get “intimidated” by her presence.
“I understand that you may not [attend personally], so I will not. Because all of them there might get intimidated by my presence,” Duterte said.
A vote of two-thirds or 16 out of the 24 senators, who will be sitting as judges at the impeachment court, is needed for Duterte’s conviction.
Under Article XI, Section 3, paragraph 7 of the Constitution, conviction through impeachment shall result in the impeachable officer’s removal from his or her current post and disqualification from holding any other public office.
The same provision also states that notwithstanding the conviction through impeachment, the same officer shall also be subject to criminal prosecution, trial and possible punishment under the law. – Elizabeth Marcelo
