A FORMER head of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) yesterday said the Senate should have already started the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
“The language of the Constitution is clear, `forthwith,’ meaning the trial should start without delay when they received it,” Domingo Egon Cayosa, former IBNP national president, said in Filipino in an interview with GMA’s Unang Balita program.
He was referring to Section 2 (4), Article XI of the 1987 Constitution which states that “In case the verified complaint or resolution of impeachment is filed by at least one-third of all the members of the House, the same shall constitute the Articles of Impeachment, and trial by the Senate shall forthwith proceed.”
Arguments about when the trial should start revolve around the term “forthwith,” with one side saying this means immediately.
Senate President Francis Escudero recently said the Senate could convene as an impeachment court only when Congress is in session, meaning the trial can start in July this year. Congress went on break on February 5, the day the House transmitted the impeachment complaint to the Senate.
Cayosa said the longer impeachment trial is delayed, the more it may cause political instability.
Last Friday, lawyer and former Presidential Commission on Good Government special government counsel Catalino Generillo Jr. asked the Supreme Court to compel the Senate to “immediately” convene as an impeachment court and start the trial.
He said the 1987 Constitution does not permit the Senate to delay its duty during recess, adding it must promptly constitute itself as an impeachment court and try the Vice President.
Generillo’s petition will be among the issues that the magistrates will tackle in today’s regular en banc session.
Cayosa said he is skeptical that the High Court will grant Generillo’s plea due to the principle of separation of powers between the judiciary and the legislative branches of government.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla yesterday assured the Vice President of a fair and impartial investigation into criminal complaints filed against her, adding that due process will be strictly observed by prosecutors handling the complaints.
To recall, the National Bureau of Investigation filed before the justice department complaints of inciting to sedition and grave threats against Duterte after she issued threats last year against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Lisa Araneta-Marcos, and Speaker Martin Romualdez.
Among specific impeachable acts cited in the impeachment compliant is the alleged conspiracy to assassinate the three, which was anchored on Duterte’s statement that she has ordered a hitman to kill the three in case she gets killed.
The NBI complaints are up for preliminary investigation by the National Prosecution Service.
The NPS is headed by Prosecutor General Richard Anthony Fadullon who earlier said state prosecutors will determine if evidence presented by the NBI is complete.
Duterte has clarified that her “assassination threat” against the Marcoses were taken out of “logical context” and that her remark was not a threat, as she only highlighted the alleged threat to her life.
Malacañang, however, called in an “active threat” to the President.
