ILOILO Rep. Lorenz Defensor, a member of the House’s 11-man prosecution panel, yesterday assailed Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, saying “it’s very unbecoming of a senator-judge in an impeachment trial to say that the impeachment complaint and the trial is a witch-hunt.”
Defensor said such statement should not come from a senator-judge “who is expected to receive the evidence with impartiality and to treat the impeachment as a constitutional process.”
“We should limit what we say to the public, especially how we prejudge the impeachment as well as the coming evidence during the trial,” he added.
Zubiri, in a press conference on Monday, said while the impeachment trial should proceed as mandated by the Constitution, he believes it is “a witch-hunt because they want to remove her from public service so others can sit.”
Defensor said such statements by a senator-judge could be perceived by the public “as telegraphing a dismissal early on before the trial will start,” and will “affect the people’s perception of how the case will go about and how the trial will proceed.”
Defensor urged senators anew to hear the evidence first during trial proper before rendering judgment.
“Even as a prosecutor, I did not prejudge a conviction or an acquittal. All we are saying is here’s evidence here and more than 215 members of Congress believe in it. You should hear it first before calling it a witch-hunt,” he said.
Defensor said the House prosecution panel has submitted a “well-written and authoritative” reply to the Vice President’s answer ad cautelam (with caution) to the impeachment complaint.
Rep. Terry Ridon (PL, Bicol Saro) said the impeachment process is very important, adding those who voted to impeach Duterte last February had basis to do so.
“I think we have to hunt for the truth. We have to hunt for accountability, we have to hunt for transparency,” he said.
Ridon underscored calls for neutrality among senator-judges. “I’m not quite certain on how it (Zubiri’s comment) would play into that,” he said.
Asked if he believes that senator-judges may be trying to avoid a trial proper where the evidence against the Vice President will be made public, Ridon said, “I cannot speak for them, obviously, but we really want an open transparent impeachment proceedings.”
“We will leave it to their discretion as an impeachment court. Pero again the position of congressmen and of course civil society and the public would be there is no basis to do a motion to dismiss,” he said.
BIAS
Palace Press Officer Claire Castro dismissed Zubiri’s witch-hunt pronouncement and said a senator-judge should avoid expressing views that tend to show bias.
Castro echoed a call of former Senate President Francis Escudero for the senators to refrain from making comments on the impeachment issue as “any perception of bias or pre-judgment would undermine not only the integrity of the impeachment trial but also the public’s trust in the Senate as an institution.”
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) expressed concern over delays in the start of the trial.
“We are disturbed by the delay in the Senate in executing the constitutional demand for the impeachment process of the Vice President,” said the CBCP said in a pastoral letter after the recent 130th CBCP Plenary Assembly.
“We affirm that impeachment, when pursued with truth and justice, is a legitimate democratic mechanism for transparency and accountability in governance,” they also said.
The CBCP urged the faithful “to combat moral indifference, listen to all sides with openness, and foster a culture of engaged citizenship rooted in our Christian faith.” – With Jocelyn Reyes and Gerard Naval
