'House wrongly applies one year ban on impeach cases'

MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives has been wrongly applying the ban on the filing of impeachment cases within a year of each other, according to veteran lawyer Estelito Mendoza.

“In my opinion the one-year ban only starts when the article of impeachment is filed with the Senate,” Mendoza, a former solicitor general, told reporters.

Mendoza said it was wrong for the House to dismiss an impeachment complaint filed against an official within a year after another one had been filed.

“That should not be the case,” he said.

Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez has invoked the constitutional ban on the filing of more than one impeachment complaint within a year in contesting before the Supreme Court (SC) the impeachment raps filed against her by former Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros and Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes.

Oral arguments on Gutierrez’s petition resume at the SC today. Solicitor General Joel Cadiz will represent the House with retired SC Justice Vicente Mendoza as collaborating counsel.

The House is seeking the lifting of the status quo ante order issued by the SC last Sept. 14 temporarily halting the impeachment proceedings.

Cadiz is expected to contest the High Court’s intervening in the impeachment proceedings by citing the separation of powers of the judicial and legislative branches.

“The wisdom of designing impeachment as a political exercise prevailed among the framers of the Constitution, some of whom pointed out that although the impeachment of public officials may not result in their removal from office, the political exercise nonetheless has a deterrent effect as a means of ensuring that the public trust is upheld,” he stressed.

The Office of the Solicitor General also stressed that Ombudsman Gutierrez erred in seeking relief from the SC without first exhausting all remedies available to her under the impeachment process in the House of Representatives.

“The existence of this remedy precludes petitioner from seeking from this Honorable Court the writs of certiorari and prohibition which lie only where there is no plain, speedy and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law,” Cadiz said.

Cadiz also stressed there was no violation of the one-year ban on impeachment, saying the ban applies both to the filing and to the referral of the complaint to the concerned committee.

He said filing and referral of an impeachment complaint constitute the initiation of impeachment proceedings.

This means the impeachment case against Gutierrez was initiated not when the first complaint was filed last July 22 but when the two complaints were referred jointly to the justice committee on Aug. 11.