Senate awaits House move on impeachment

The Senate failed to agree yesterday on what to do with the impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. after senators took Senate President Franklin Drilon to task for prematurely announcing the Senate position on the issue.

In a closed-door caucus that lasted about two hours, Senators Edgardo Angara and Aquilino Pimentel Jr. slammed Drilon for announcing last week that the Senate would respect the decision of the Supreme Court on the impeachment.

Angara and Pimentel heatedly argued that the Senate should convene as an impeachment court to decide on the complaint or hear the merits of the case against Davide even after the SC declared yesterday that the impeachment complaint is unconstitutional.

But the heated debate failed to resolve anything, said opposition Sen. John Osmeña.

"We agreed on nothing," Osmeña said. "Nagdebate lang kami nang nagdebate (We only debated and debated)."

After the caucus, however, Drilon said the Senate would await the House of Representatives’ action on the complaint.

"The ball is with them at this point," Drilon told a press conference after the caucus. "The impeachment complaint is before the House of Representatives. The Senate, we have agreed, will be awaiting the decision of the House."

"If the House transmits it to us, that is when we convene again in caucus and decide what to do with it," he added, saying the Senate will then decide whether to shelve the complaint or convene itself into an impeachment court.

During the caucus, Drilon said the senators also debated on how the House could transmit the impeachment complaint to the Senate for disposition.

"Insofar as the transmittal is concerned, there are two schools of thought," Drilon said, explaining that some senators said the complaint must be transmitted to the Senate by the House secretary general.

Other senators, on the other hand, maintained that the 76 congressmen who "endorsed" the impeachment complaint filed by Tarlac Rep. Gilbert Teodoro and Camarines Sur Rep. Felix William Fuentebella could physically deliver the complaint.

Either way, Drilon said, "we will have to receive it and then decide what to do with it."

"We are not constitutionalists here. There are enough constitutionalists in this world. We will await the action of the House and we will again have an emergency caucus once the complaint reaches us because if it does not reach us, then there is nothing to debate about," Drilon said.