SEN. Sherwin Gatchalian yesterday said it was premature on the part of the Senate to ask the 20th Congress if it still would want to pursue the impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte since that congress has yet to set on July 28.
In an interview with radio dzBB, Gatchalian said he cannot understand the decision of the majority when they voted in favor of asking the House of Representatives, particularly in the 20th Congress, to confirm its interest in pursuing the impeachment complaint since that congress is still non-existent.
He said the best thing his colleagues could have done was just leave the matter to the members of the 20th Congress.
“It is like getting ahead of that congress. Again, we will go back to the Constitution which states that once the articles of impeachment have been transmitted to the Senate, there must be a presumption of regularity. That means, the trial should have proceeded. But what happened is that we got ahead of the lower house, especially the 20th Congress, because we are saying that the impeachment complaint will cross over to the 20th Congress and asked them to make sure if they still want to pursue it,” Gatchalian said in Filipino.
He said returning the impeachment articles back to the House was also not a good idea because the people thought it will “kill” the impeachment complaint.
He gave the assurance the impeachment complaint is still very much alive despite the decision of the 18 senators to return it to the House.
It can be recalled that Sen. Ronald dela Rosa last week moved that the complaint be dismissed outright because of alleged constitutional infirmities and uncertainty as to whether the incoming 20th Congress can still handle the case.
Dela Rosa’s motion was subjected to hours of debates, prompting Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano to amend the motion — to return the complaint to the House and ask for a certification that it did not violate the one-year ban on receiving impeachment complaints; and an attestation from the 20th Congress if it is still interested in the case.
Gatchalian said returning the complaint back to the House gave the impression the trial will no longer proceed.
He said the complaint is still “alive” because the Senate has issued a summons to the Vice President for her to answer the charges.
Gatchalian said the impeachment court can convene after the Vice President has submitted her reply so that they can discuss their next move in relation to the trial.
The summons was issued on June 10.
“So, anything after June 26, the impeachment court can convene even without the prosecutors like what we saw last time when the senators took their oath as trial judges … We can convene so we can discuss the development, but there will be no trial. The impeachment court can only convene for the trial once the prosecutors are already present,” he said.
Gatchalian also said the Senate sitting as an impeachment court should have adopted the recommendation of Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III to just ask a certification from the House stating that its members did not violate the one-year ban on accepting impeachment complaints against impeachable officials, instead of remanding the complaint to the House.
The House has deferred acceptance of the complaint pending clarification from the Senate on its remand order.
Gatchalian said members of the incoming 20th Congress should decide if they still want to pursue the complaint.
They can send us a letter stating that they no longer want to pursue the case anymore. But in the absence of that letter, the trial should continue,” he added.
He also said the articles of impeachment have been transmitted to the Senate, and it is the Senate’s job, acting as an impeachment court, to try and decide on the case.
