Will Senate apply remote voting to VP’s trial? House team worried
The House prosecution team in the impending impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte is deeply concerned that the proposed changes in the Senate rules on voting might end up being applied not only to regular proceedings but to her trial as well.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the 11-member team said that it respects the Senate’s independence as a coequal body and as a newly convened impeachment court.
“[B]ut we strongly believe that impeachment proceedings require personal presence, personal accountability and full attention from every senator-judge,” said the team’s spokesperson, Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong.
While delivered with parliamentary courtesy, the House prosecutors’ message stoked the questions arising from the proposal, which triggered a heated exchange on the Senate floor and a dramatic walkout by members of the minority bloc on Tuesday night.
A day after the walkout, Adiong thanked the Senate minority.
“We appreciate those who stood firm in defending the integrity and solemnity of the institution and the impeachment process,’’ he said. ‘’It’s important for our people not to lose trust in our institutions.”
‘No ordinary period’
According to Adiong, any move to allow remote participation by senator-judges may affect the “integrity and solemnity of the Senate ahead of the impeachment trial.”
“This is not an ordinary period in the Senate. Once senators sit as judges in an impeachment court, the Filipino people expect them to be physically present, listening to the evidence and personally performing that constitutional duty,” he added.
Adiong noted that remote participation in congressional hearings and other proceedings was only allowed during extraordinary situations, like the coronavirus pandemic that forced lockdowns in 2020.
“There is no pandemic or any extraordinary situation now that would justify online participation, especially with the impeachment trial drawing near,’’ he said, adding:
“Impeachment carries enormous constitutional and historical weight. Personal attendance reflects the seriousness, transparency and accountability expected from every senator-judge.”
Impeachment court
Five days after being elected to his post in a leadership coup mounted by pro-Duterte colleagues, Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano formally convened the chamber as an impeachment court on May 18.
In one of its first acts, the court directed the Vice President to submit her formal reply to the four articles of impeachment transmitted May 13 by the House to the Senate.
She was given 10 calendar days to do so, starting from the day the Office of the Vice President received the order on May 20. Since the 10th day falls on a Saturday, May 30, the deadline is adjusted to the next working day which is Monday, June 1.
