Charter framer rebuts senators’ arguments for not trying Sara
The Senate on Thursday continued to be criticized and pressed to start the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, with a member of the commission that drafted the 1987 Constitution telling senators that they had no power to dismiss the impeachment complaint against her.
In an interview with dzMM radio, constitutionalist Christian Monsod also disputed arguments raised by some senators, including Sen. Francis Tolentino, that Duterte could not be tried due to lack of time and that the trial could not move on to the next Congress.
“It’s a continuing body, the Senate. So, the 20th Congress can continue the process,” Monsod said. “It’s not like a legislation wherein unfinished bills in the 19th Congress have to start again from the beginning in the 20th Congress.”
Monsod explained that even if half of the senators stepped down on June 30 at the end of the 19th Congress, the other 12 who have been elected can still assume duties as senator-judges on that day if a trial was ongoing.
“The Senate is not functioning as a legislative body [during impeachment], it is functioning as a court, a trial court for the impeachment,” Monsod said.
“It is a power given to them by the Constitution. As a duty of the Senate, they cannot get out of the duty by all these kinds of technicalities that do not exist anyway,” he pointed out.
When to go to SC
For now, there is no need yet to raise the matter to the Supreme Court because the Senate has yet to act on the impeachment complaint, according to Monsod.
It is unknown how many senators, if any, have signed a draft resolution authored by Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa calling for the de facto dismissal of the impeachment complaint. Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero said it was still a “scrap of paper.”
“If the Senate will pass a resolution dismissing the complaint, then that’s the time to go to the Supreme Court, because by that time, that means that the Senate has violated the Constitution,” according to Monsod.
In case the 19th Congress ends and the House impeachment prosecutors went to the high court for remedy, Monsod said that the court could order the Senate to restore the impeachment proceedings.
Offended by Escudero
As the delay in the start of the impeachment proceedings continues, some House lawmakers took umbrage at Escudero’s insinuation that they were acting like minions of Speaker Martin Romualdez in insisting on starting the trial of the Vice President.
Zambales Rep. Jay Khonghun, La Union Rep. Paolo Ortega V, and Manila Rep. Rolando Valeriano denied they were “sunud-sunuran” (subservient) to Romualdez and urged the Senate to instead perform its constitutional duty to convene as an impeachment court.
Khonghun and Ortega are part of the so-called “Young Guns” bloc that voices the House majority’s stand on issues. Valeriano was among the first to call for the investigation of Duterte’s alleged misuse of confidential funds.
No blind follower
Escudero, facing criticism for the delay in the impeachment trial, said he would not cave in to demands to convene the impeachment court “simply because the Speaker of the House wants the Vice President be impeached.”
Khonghun rejected the Senate leader’s statement.
“Nobody here in the lower chamber is a blind follower. We work together because we trust each other and we believe in the leadership of Speaker Martin Romualdez. He has never imposed his will on us and he lets us decide on issues based on our own principles and views,” said Khonghun, who is the assistant majority leader.
Ortega, the deputy majority leader, said that Romualdez was the House chief, “but at the end of the day, our guide is the Constitution.”
Valeriano said his endorsement of the impeachment complaint that was signed by 215 lawmakers last Feb. 5 was “the vote of my district, District 2 … and we’ve proven that because I won my reelection bid.”
On Speaker’s role
Bataan Rep. Geraldine Roman also denied that Romualdez had any influence on the impeachment, saying that “he’s quite quiet on the impeachment case and the developments in the Senate.”
“He does not dictate the chamber… he even said that we will wait for the decision of the Senate so I do not think there is basis for that.”
She urged the Senate to “simply follow the Constitution,” adding that “nobody is saying they should convict the Vice President, nobody is saying they should acquit.”
“More importantly, we cannot pretend that there [isn’t a] constitutional mandate for the Senate to constitute itself into an impeachment court forthwith,” she said.
