1 month ago
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MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos cannot call a special session of the Senate for the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte as such can only be used for enactment of laws, according to retired Supreme Court senior associate justice Antonio Carpio.
He was reacting to the President’s pronouncement that he would call for a special session if requested to do so by the Senate.
But Senate President Francis Escudero is averse to the idea of holding a special session, a proposal raised likewise by former Senate president Franklin Drilon.
With the current Senate having only the period of June 2 to June 13 to convene, there would simply be “no more time” to hold an impeachment trial, Carpio said. The delay in the transmittal of the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate by the House of Representatives, he said, had prevented the senators from taking up the matter before the adjournment of session.
Carpio also explained that even if the trial proceeds, the Senate must first revise and publish new impeachment rules, and give Duterte 10 days to respond – a process that would certainly take time.
“First of all, they haven’t started yet. They will start fresh. They have issued the order for Sara to comment. They have not even put it in their agenda, so it’s the next Senate that will put it in the agenda for the first time. Not a single witness has testified,” Carpio said on One News on Thursday.
According to Carpio, the impeachment trials of former president Joseph Estrada and the late chief justice Renato Corona also did not start right away due to long preparations.
He also said that an impeachment trial of Duterte would be deemed over – in her favor – if she decides to resign before a sentence is handed down. “It’s because she’s no longer in office,” Carpio said, explaining the dismissal of the case against her.
And if Duterte resigns before a judgment of conviction, she would still be able to run in the 2028 elections, Carpio stressed.
If the Senate proceeds with the trial, Carpio said Duterte may challenge the chamber’s jurisdiction before the Supreme Court.
Carpio said impeachment is not the only means by which a public official can be barred permanently from holding office.
“They can file a criminal case because that’s separate. In the criminal case, if she is found guilty, there will be a prohibition of office,” he said.
No more time
Escudero, meanwhile, questioned the need for a special session just to accommodate the impeachment complaint against Duterte.
The Senate went on break without discussing in plenary the verified impeachment complaint transmitted by the House of Representatives.
“We resume (session) on June 2 and will definitely take this up after approving our impeachment rules,” Escudero said.
Escudero balked at Drilon’s suggestion that President Marcos resolve the issue by calling on Congress to hold a special session so that the Senate can perform its “constitutional duty of acting as an impeachment court to try the Vice President.”
“Calling Congress to a special session to tackle the impeachment complaint is the sole prerogative of the President, which cannot be questioned, not even by the Supreme Court,” Drilon said.
“Why? What is the problem? What is there to ‘remedy?’ ” Escudero said in reply.
Escudero earlier blamed the House of Representatives for sitting on the impeachment complaint for months and then transmitting it to the Senate just mere hours before it adjourned for the midterm election break.
“It was filed a few hours before we adjourned. We lacked material time to consider it, given the process of taking ‘proper order of the subject of impeachment,’” he said.
“I will follow the law and legal procedure, will not deviate from it and will treat this as any other impeachment case,” he added. “As I said, I will not rush this nor will I inordinately delay it.”
Escudero added that special sessions are reserved for the passage of important pieces of legislation, not for the convening of an impeachment court.
“Impeachment may not be covered under the provision for special session in the 1987 Constitution. Still, if a special session is called for, we will definitely attend,” Escudero said.
Fast-track bills
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III, for his part, said President Marcos can call for a special session and also take advantage of it to fast-track the passage of important pending bills.
He cited the pieces of legislation on judicial fiscal autonomy, tax on vape, e-governance and capital markets reform as among the “pending important legislative matters which can be acted upon in a special session.”
“This will make the special session more meaningful; at the same time, the Senate can tackle the convening of an impeachment court, because the impeachment complaint can now be included in the business of the special session,” Pimentel said.
“Once formally convened, the Senate as an impeachment court will have its own trial calendar different from its legislative calendar. This will commence from day to day,” he added.
Pimentel also agreed with Escudero’s view that the incoming 20th Congress can pick up where the 19th Congress left off with the impeachment proceedings.
Escudero’s insistence that the Senate cannot be rushed into starting an impeachment trial did not sit well with a grandson of the late former president Corazon Aquino, who said that “two wrongs don’t make a right.”
“Although Senate President Francis Escudero has a point that the endorsement of the impeachment complaint was done at the last minute, it was indeed done at the last minute and we expressed our frustration with the House of Representatives… Two wrongs don’t make a right,” Kiko Aquino Dee said at a press briefing yesterday.
“If the House of Representatives delayed the impeachment complaint, it will not help if the Senate will further cause sufferings if it will continue to delay,” Dee added.
“If Senate President Escudero thinks that the situation is not ideal, it will further result in chaos if the Senate delays the trial of the impeachment complaint endorsed by the House of Representatives,” Dee pointed out.
For her part, former presidential adviser on the peace process Teresita Deles maintained that the 1987 Constitution is clear on matters regarding impeachment complaints.
“The Constitution is rather forthright once the impeachment complaint reaches the Senate, forthwith, it should start the trial so it is clear. It does not say that it will wait while Congress is in recess. It does not say it will only be done at convenience. Our call to our leaders in all the levels of the government, to follow the Constitution as the mandate is clear with regards to impeachment,” Deles said.
“If the House of Representatives failed to act swiftly, the Senate should show that there is a branch of government which follows the Constitution,” she added.
25 more signatories
Meanwhile, House secretary general Reginald Velasco said 25 members of the House of Representatives who were unable to sign the impeachment complaint against Duterte because they were not physically present on the last session day on Wednesday submitted verification forms to make their intentions known.
Their inclusion in the list of signatories to the impeachment complaint would have increased the number of lawmakers favoring Duterte’s ouster to 240, representing a “supermajority of almost 80 percent of the 306-member House of Representatives.”
A total of 215 lawmakers affixed their signatures on the impeachment complaint against the Vice President.
Velasco said these 25 lawmakers were unable to be physically present during the initial oath-taking and verification due to commitments abroad or in their respective districts.— Marc Jayson Cayabyab, Bella Cariaso, Jose Rodel Clapano
