FOR several days now since the House of Representatives transmitted to the Senate the articles of impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte last February 5, the issue of when the Senate will begin hearing the case has dominated the discussions in media and other sectors.
Most legal luminaries have taken the position of retired Senior Associate Justice Adolfo Azcuna who said, quoting Article XI of the 1987 Constitution, that once the complaint or resolution of impeachment, signed and verified (meaning under oath) by at least one-third of the member of the House, is filed, it constitutes the Articles of Impeachment, and trial by the Senate shall forthwith proceed.
Azcuna explained that even if the senators are on legislative recess, they have to convene, take the required oath or affirmations, and proceed to trial. “There is no need for a call. The provision of Article XI is the call. It is, in fact and in law, an order,” he said.
Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal meanwhile proffered that campaigning in these national and local elections would not be a valid excuse for the present Senate to pass on to the new Senate its constitutional duty to immediately start without delay the proceedings.
Macalintal believes that if the impeachment case should be taken up by the Senate under the 20th Congress, then “it is doomed to fail.”
This is because the very rules of the present Senate, (Section 123, Rule XLIV) provide: All pending matters and proceedings shall terminate upon the expiration of one Congress, but may be taken up by the succeeding Congress, as if presented for the first time,” he explained.
Senate President Francis Escudero, the head of the Senate which is the chamber mandated by the Constitution to constitute itself as the impeachment court and hold the trial, maintains that a session is needed for the impeachment rules to be approved and an impeachment court to be convened.
Since the court was not convened during the last day of session last Feb. 5, Escudero maintained that the process will have to commence after the resumption of sessions on June 2.
As various other opinions are floated, a lawyer and former government official filed a petition with the Supreme Court seeking to compel the Senate to immediately convene as an impeachment court and begin the public trial of Vice President Sara Duterte. His request is for the High Tribunal to issue a writ of mandamus to this effect.
Catalino Generillo Jr., a former special government counsel of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), argued that the Constitution does not permit the Senate to delay its duty during recess.
On one hand, some measure of political stability may be achieved if the SC would take a definitive stand on this issue. On the other, the High Tribunal might refrain from issuing a ruling and respect the principle of co-equal powers in the government structure.
The journey of the impeachment process has always been bumpy, with laws and rules prone to be set aside because after all, impeachment is a political process, and not regular criminal proceedings.
