The impeachment genie is out of the bottle

Senators were figuratively dragged by the public and forced to commence the impeachment process against Vice President Sara Duterte. This happened when Senate President Francis Escudero took his oath as presiding officer of the impeachment court, which is the whole Senate. Some were dragged with loud protestations like Escudero, while others were reduced to submissive silence. The public’s taskmasters were minority Senators Aquilino Pimentel III and Risa Hontiveros.

As of this writing, 22 senators have taken their oaths as judges, and the Senate has officially convened as an impeachment court. After convening, however, 18 senators voted to return the articles of impeachment to the House of Representatives—supposedly for the House to certify that no violation of the constitutional prohibition against filing of more than one complaint per year was committed, and that the House’s 20th Congress, whose members will assume/reassume office on June 30, is still willing to pursue the complaint. The vote to remand the articles to the House clarified that they were not being dismissed or terminated. The Senate next issued an order directing VP Sara to file her answer to the charges within 10 days.

If we are to accord good faith to the move of the Senate, we will interpret the action to return the charges to the Lower House as a means to pause the proceedings to enable both chambers of the incoming 20th Congress (instead of the outgoing 19th Congress) to do the following: for the 20th Congress of the Lower House to give its seal of approval on the charges that were approved by its 19th Congress, and for the members of the Senate’s 20th Congress to participate in the impeachment proceedings from the beginning.

On the other hand, if we view the Senate’s action as tainted with bad faith, we will interpret the remand of the charges as a means for the Senate to either test the fury of the public and how far it will go to vent its anger, or to defuse the public’s anger by tiring out the latter with dribbling moves before dismissing the charges. If we assume bad faith, we may also conclude that the Senate is out to taint the impeachment proceedings with a poison pill so that its dribbling action could either be invalidated by the Supreme Court or litigated till kingdom come in the high court.

The senators got a preview of how outraged and furious the public can get after Escudero was shamed with ridicule and excoriated with rebuke when he tried to delay the impeachment proceedings.

The impeachment hearings will be sources of high drama at every aspect and stage of the proceedings. There will be intense debates about any procedural move the impeachment court and the House prosecutors will take because roadblocks will be put up every step of the way. We’ve experienced a foretaste of this with the absurd quibble over the meaning of the word “forthwith,” the privilege speech of Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa urging the dismissal of the case even before the senators could take their oaths as judges, and the remand of the charges to the Lower House.

There will also be vigorous attempts to block the presentation of damning evidence against the impeached Vice President. Out of the seven grounds of impeachment submitted by the House, it’s anticipated that anger-engendering evidence will be presented on at least four charges. On the charge of graft and corruption involving confidential funds, it is expected that a long list of ridiculous and fictitious names, who supposedly received large amounts from VP Sara, will be exposed to the public. On the charge of bribery and corruption, it is expected that the bank accounts of VP Sara, with details on the enormous amounts deposited and their dubious sources, will be laid bare to the public. On the charge of unexplained wealth, it is anticipated that the eye-popping total amount of the assets of the Vice President, which are not commensurate with her lawful income, will be exposed. On the charge of high crimes of murder and conspiracy to commit murder, it is expected that VP Sara’s role in the extrajudicial killings in Davao City as part of tokhang operations will be revealed.

By constituting themselves as an impeachment court, and requiring VP Sara to answer the charges, the senators will now have to allow the impeachment trial to run its full course, and deny any attempt to dismiss the charges summarily. The senator-judges have released the impeachment genie from the bottle. The only way to make the genie return to the bottle is to have it hear the evidence fully and see judgment rendered fairly. Otherwise, the senators will face the wrath and fury of the genie that’s none other than the Filipino electorate.

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