UP lawyer: SC intervention in impeach raps premature
If the Supreme Court again intervenes in the impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte, it may risk dragging itself into politics, especially when the process is just beginning, a constitutional law expert stressed on Saturday.
For University of the Philippines College of Law associate dean Paolo Tamase, doing so, for the second time, would “effectively amend impeachment out of the Constitution” and the co-equality of branches in the government system.
“If the Supreme Court intervenes in this case—again for the second time in a row or the second year in a row—[it] will effectively communicate to the House, and Congress in general that it supervises this process [of impeachment],” Tamase told the Inquirer in a phone interview.
The first intervention was when the high court declared unconstitutional last year the articles of impeachment against Duterte because the complaint violated the prohibition from filing more than one impeachment case against an individual within one year.
Duterte’s camp has since filed three complaints against the impeachment proceedings against the Vice President, all asking the high court to stop the ongoing impeachment proceedings at the House.
Although the Supreme Court is considered as the “final word” in interpretations of the 1987 Constitution, this does not necessarily mean that it is the “final word with everything in [the] government,” he said.
In the past, Tamase said the Supreme Court has taken a “very prudent approach” when it comes to ruling on cases involving high politics, such as cases of impeachment, since it has tried to distance itself from politics.
The court also ruled last year that the Vice President was not given the opportunity to present her side on the allegations contained in the impeachment complaints, therefore violating her right.
“In that case, if they are drawn to that political situation, then they are forced to rule politically as well,” he said. “I’m just saying it is increasing the risk by participating or intervening at this stage when I think the case isn’t actually ripe for its intervention yet.”
