SENATE President Francis “Chiz” Escudero yesterday said members of the House prosecution team might want to “sabotage” the impeachment complaint they filed against Vice President Sara Duterte because they keep on insisting that he can act on the complaint even if Congress is still on recess.
Escudero said he has repeatedly explained that no action can be taken by Senate on the impeachment complaint until sessions resume on June 2.
The House prosecution team has been asking Escudero to “immediately” transform the Senate into an impeachment court, based on the word “forthwith” in the Constitution.
The House prosecution team on Tuesday filed a motion with the Senate, asking the chamber to issue a summons to Duterte to compel her to answer the complaint.
Escudero rejected this on Wednesday, saying the House should know that impeachment rules requires that the writ of summons they are seeking can be issued only once an impeachment court is convened.
“Gusto nilang gumawa kami ng isang bagay na illegal, kaya’t ibabalik ko na lang ang katanungan sa kanila, nakakapagod na eh. Gusto ba talaga nilang isabotahe yung impeachment na fina-file nila kaya gusto nilang mangyari ito? Kasi yun lang ang nakikita po para gustuhin nila ito na klaro naman ang nakalagay sa batas (They want us to do something that is illegal, that’s why I will just ask them this because it is getting tiresome. Do they really want to sabotage the impeachment complaint that they themselves filed because they keep on insisting on something? That’s the only reason I can think of for their insistence when it is clear under the law [that an impeachment court can only be convened when there is regular session]),” Escudero said.
Rep. Marcelino Libanan, who led the prosecution team in filing the motion, yesterday the team respects Escudero’s decision to reject the House motion but a member continued to pressure the Senate leadership to issue the summons.
“We want them (Senate) to issue it now… We want to speed up the process of the pleadings. So when the Senate is convened as impeachment court, we’ll be ready for trial with all the pleadings dispensed with,” he said in mixed Filipino and English in an interview with ANC.
Escudero reiterated yesterday that the summons can be issued only once the impeachment court is formed. He added that the impeachment court will most likely be created on June 2.
He also said the Senate will write a letter to the House of Representatives to formally reply to Libanan’s suggestion.
“But the long and short of it is this – a summons can only be issued if the impeachment court has been convened. You cannot convene the impeachment court while Congress is on recess. That’s very clear. To tell you the truth, I am running out patience reminding them that we are all members of Congress who know how to interpret the law,” he added.
Libanan, prosecution panel head, said the House respects the Senate’s decision and will just await its formal response to the motion before deciding on its next legal action.
Libanan explained the House prosecutors filed the motion for writ of summons on Tuesday “as a necessary procedural move, not as an act of defiance but as an effort to break the political and procedural impasse that has stalled the impeachment process.”
“We filed the motion in good faith. It is grounded on the Constitution and the Senate’s own Rules of Impeachment, particularly Senate Resolution No. 39,” he said. “When SP Chiz himself publicly stated that all preparatory steps could already begin, we acted on that cue. The issuance of a writ of summons is among the first preparatory steps in any impeachment trial.”
The House motion seeks to require Duterte to file an answer to the Articles of Impeachment “within a non-extendible period of 10 days from receipt of the writ of summons.”
Defensor insisted the House’ move is anchored on Rule 7 of the Senate Rules of Impeachment, which provides a non-extendible 10-day deadline for the impeached official to file an answer.
“We have seen how the Senate works very hard. Even during their break, they can conduct committee hearings. Some of them even during the campaign period are still working,” Defensor said. “And remember that if you conduct a legislative inquiry, it should be in aid of legislation. So somehow, the Senate is functioning, and we do not see any reason why we should delay an impeachment of a Vice President that involves national interests of utmost national significance.”
Defensor insisted that the Senate can already act on the impeachment complaint even if it has not formally convened as an impeachment court now that Congress is still on recess.
“We have existing Senate impeachment rules as of today because Senate Resolution No. 39, which is the Senate Rules on Impeachment that has been previously approved and published still subsists. It’s still in operation,” he said. “So, if the Senate president as presiding judge will recognize that the rules are still valid, he can issue that summons against the Vice President so she can answer.”
Defensor said even the Senate rules “acknowledge that the trial shall forthwith proceed.” “And under Rule 7 of the Senate Rules on Impeachment, dapat mag-issue na rin sila agad-agaran ng summons (they should also issue summons),” he said.
Defensor said the issuance of summons now would give both sides ample time to prepare.
“It gives us time to file our reply based on Rule 7 of the Senate Rules of Impeachment to file our reply within an unextendible period of also five days. So puwede na naming parehong pag-aralan ang kaso para pagdating ng June, tapos na ito (So we can both study the case and by June, it’s already finished). We can proceed with the trial, mark our evidence, and the sooner that the vice president faces this trial, whether she will be convicted or acquitted, we can dispense with this and have national closure with respect to this impeachment case,” he said.
