10 taxpayers seek halt to trial

A group of 10 individuals — two lawyers, six professors, a businessman and a customs broker — has filed a "nuisance" suit that seeks to stop the impeachment trial of President Estrada.

In a taxpayer’s suit filed with the Supreme Court Thursday night, lawyers Vener Malabanan III and Albert Taw said the Senate should stop hearing the trial as an impeachment court since the Constitution provides that it is Congress that shall promulgate the rules on impeachment.

"Congressional action should be duly adopted by the two chambers. It is correct to conclude that the impeachment trial being conducted before the Senate acting as an impeachment tribunal is unconstitutional, illegal and void from the very beginning," the complainants stated in their 21-page petition.

They added that the function of the House of Representatives is limited only to initiating an impeachment complaint, and that it has no power to prosecute, appoint a panel of prosecutors or hire private prosecutors.

"In the absence of any law that authorizes the House of Representatives to prosecute impeachment cases, a contrary act would be unconstitutional and illegal," they said.