Speaker asserts ‘exclusive duty’ of House to impeach officials
The Supreme Court’s ruling on the impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte should be a wake-up call for the House of Representatives to uphold its “exclusive” duty, its leader said on Monday.
The high court on Friday issued its decision on the complaint, saying it was unconstitutional for violating the one-year ban on its successive filing. The Senate holds a caucus today to tackle that ruling and other legislative priorities.
The House had earlier said it will file a motion of reconsideration on the ruling. Speaker Martin Romualdez, however, also urged fellow House lawmakers on Monday to “draw [the] line,” saying “the power to initiate impeachment is the exclusive domain of this chamber.”
“Let me say this with the utmost respect: The Supreme Court has spoken, and we recognize its decision. But let it never be said that the House of the People bowed in silence,” Romualdez said in his speech after he was reelected the chamber’s leader on Monday’s opening of the first regular session of the 20th Congress.
“The Court may close a case, but it cannot close a cause. The pursuit of accountability is not a moment—it is a mandate,” the Speaker said.
Legal complications
Interviewed by reporters, newly elected Majority Leader and Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos said he believed the efforts of the House in the impeachment case “did not go to waste [since] we were just carrying out our constitutional duty.”
Although his father, President Marcos, claims not to support the impeachment case against his estranged ally, Duterte, it was the younger Marcos who first signed the complaint transmitted to the Senate on Feb. 5.
Akbayan Rep. Chel Diokno, a member of the House prosecution panel in the impeachment case, noted that among the legal complications arising from the Supreme Court ruling is the fact that “the Senate has already convened as an impeachment court.”
“The Constitution states that once the impeachment court has convened, it has the sole power to try and decide impeachment cases,” he told reporters. “So now there are two things that need to be balanced—the power of the Supreme Court to check grave abuse of discretion and the power of the impeachment court to convene and decide on impeachment cases.”
Regarding today’s caucus, Senate President Francis Escudero said “we will do what we need to do in accordance with the Constitution and the rule of law. The [Senate] plenary will decide.”
He also pointed out that the caucus will not be only about the Vice President’s impeachment case. “It’s about the work that needs to be done but I’m sure that [the case] will be brought up, … given the Supreme Court decision.”
‘Sense of the Senate’
Sen. Risa Hontiveros said some senators were “drafting a resolution with regards to the sense of the Senate, in relation to the Supreme Court [ruling]. These efforts should be clarified to determine the most effective way to move forward with the impeachment.”
She declined to say who is leading that effort.
“It’s better if that senator, the one who initiated it, would be the one to announce it. But it will be our joint resolution,” said Hontiveros, who earlier issued a joint statement, together with Senators Francis Pangilinan and Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV, expressing disagreement with the ruling.
