After debates, Chiz takes oath to lead Sara trial
Administration senators, including known political allies of Vice President Sara Duterte, on Monday night torpedoed the attempt of two opposition senators to convene themselves into an impeachment court and carry out its constitutional mandate to start her trial at once.
Without voting on the matter, the senators allowed Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero to take his oath as presiding officer of the Senate impeachment court.
But they thumbed down Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III’s motion to temporarily suspend the chamber’s legislative proceedings to let it be constituted into an impeachment court.
They also tossed out the proposal of Pimentel and Sen. Risa Hontiveros to let Escudero administer their oath as senator-judges and to officially acknowledge the transmittal of the seven articles of impeachment that the House of Representatives had endorsed.
5-hour suspension
After suspending the session for nearly five hours, Sen. Joel Villanueva took the floor and manifested that Pimentel’s original motion be limited to Escudero taking his oath and to the referral of the articles of impeachment.
In an apparent Solomonic decision, they also adopted Villanueva’s proposal for all the other senators to separately take their oaths as senator-judges on Tuesday, a day earlier than the scheduled convening of the impeachment court.
The lawmakers referred the articles of impeachment against the Vice President to the Senate committee on rules, chaired by Senate Majority Leader Francis Tolentino, a former Duterte ally.
Responding to an inquiry raised by Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, one of Duterte’s ardent allies, Villanueva clarified that the Senate was not yet acting as an impeachment court even after Escudero had taken his oath.
In urging his fellow senators to tackle Duterte’s impeachment trial, Pimentel pointed out that the “reputation and dignity” of the 24-member chamber were under attack due to suspicions that there will be no impeachment trial against Duterte.
“There is confusion as well as distrust at a time when our constitutional duty demands decisive and quick action and not unnecessary delays and endless debate on whether the duty is optional,” he said.
Reiterating his earlier arguments, the outgoing senator said Article XI, Section 3, of the 1987 Constitution unequivocally states that the trial in the Senate of an impeached government official “shall forthwith proceed” after the House had transmitted the articles of impeachment.
“It is now June 9, 2025, or more than four months since the filing of the articles of impeachment and the Senate has not yet started the trial,” he lamented.
Pimentel, who had voted to convict impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona in 2012, said it was right for Filipinos to be impatient as the senators had been dragging their feet on the matter.
‘No-trial fears’
“Indeed, there is a reason for the ‘no trial’ fears of our countrymen,” he said.
The senator said there was no harm in jumpstarting the impeachment process since they would not yet render a decision on the allegations against Duterte, who is charged with violating the Constitution and betraying public trust.
According to him, further delays would not only undermine their tasks spelled out in the Constitution and the Senate rules. “It risks eroding public trust in the Senate’s capacity to uphold the accountability of public officers and the rule of law,” he said.
Hontiveros said Supreme Court Associate Justice Adolfo Azcuna, who had introduced the word “forthwith” in the impeachment provision as a member of the constitutional commission that crafted the Charter, had explained that the term meant “immediately and without unreasonable delay.”
She said the Senate’s own rules had provided enough justification for them to act promptly on Duterte’s impeachment without being bound by their legislative calendar.
“We had a choice every step of the way, and our choice has been to delay, to drag our feet, to hide behind what we say are legal ambiguities,” Hontiveros said.
She said she would not allow the Senate of the 19th Congress to shirk from its constitutional duty.
As a collegial body, she said the Senate must not be “heedless and callous to the growing calls for the institution to fulfill its mandate and begin the impeachment trial.”
VP lawyers ready
As disputes over when to start the trial or to even abort it, Duterte’s lawyers, commenting publicly for the first time on the impeachment, said on Monday that they were ready for trial, even if the complaint against her was constitutionally flawed.
“The impeachment process must never be weaponized to harass, silence or eliminate political opponents,” Duterte’s lawyers said. “It is a constitutional mechanism, not a political tool.”
The Vice President’s lawyers said they were prepared “to confront the charges and expose the baselessness of the accusations against the Vice President.”
Representative-elect Leila de Lima, who was selected as a member of the House panel of prosecutors against Duterte, said a schedule proposed by Tolentino to conclude the trial before noon on June 30, when the current Congress bows out, was “crazy” and could end up “railroading” the entire proceedings.
If the trial starts June 11, only 19 days would be left to reach a decision on whether she is guilty or innocent, according to Tolentino’s proposed schedule.
‘Crazy’ proposal
But De Lima immediately rejected his proposal.
“The timeline proposed by Senator Tolentino is actually a crazy proposal because after sitting on it for four months, now they’re cramming the schedules,” she said in an interview during a rally in front of the Senate to push the senators to start the trial.
“Don’t force the timeline that Senator Tolentino is pushing because, for me, it’s a recipe or a prelude to railroading,” said De Lima.
According to De Lima, such a move will violate due process.
“Any seasoned lawyer, especially one experienced in courtroom trials, would say that is not at all realistic or practical,” she said.
Tolentino’s proposal was based on his understanding that the impeachment proceedings could not extend to the 20th Congress as the current set of lawmakers would end their terms on June 30.
Parrying brickbats hurled at him, Escudero maintained that he was not dilly-dallying and that he would not allow those pressuring him affect his handling of Duterte’s impeachment.
He turned the tables on those criticizing his decision to defer by more than a week the reading of the articles of impeachment, questioning their supposed silence on the failure of the House to immediately act on the three impeachment complaints that were earlier filed against the Vice President.
He also claimed that the individuals and groups attacking him now did not raise the same objections over the delays in previous impeachment complaints, particularly those brought against former Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. and resigned Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez.
“As I have said from the start, I will not listen to anyone who is in favor of or against the impeachment,” Escudero said.
“I repeat. I’m not in favor of (Duterte) and I don’t like her. But I’m not also angry at her. I am performing and doing my role the best way I see fit without any fear or bias in favor or against anyone,” he said.
