Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero assumed as Senate President after Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri resigned as the head of the 24-man Upper Chamber. The Senate leadership change took place on May 20, 2024, or two days before the end of the second regular session of the 19th Congress. Less than a year into office as Senate chief, Escudero’s leadership is again faced with challenges that can make or break his leadership hold of the Upper Chamber.
In particular, Escudero has been under fire on the way he is handling the fourth impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte. Escudero has been dodging questions raised on why the senators did not even acknowledge receipt of the seven-point Articles of Impeachment and documents after these were officially delivered to the Senate secretariat.
The fourth impeachment complaint is the summation of three other impeachment complaints previously submitted to the House of Representatives. The impeachment charges against VP Sara ranged from betrayal of public trust, graft and corruption to criminal act of grave threats to kill President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM), the First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and Speaker Martin Romualdez.
In the morning hours of Feb. 5, the transmittal of the fourth impeachment complaint from the House was being reported already while we were having our Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum. So much so that even the Senate secretariat initiated a media briefing at noon that day to ensure orderly coverage of the House transmittal of the Articles of Impeachment.
Apparently not aware or informed beforehand, Escudero ordered the Senate secretariat to stop all the media frenzy. Citing there was nothing to prepare for, Escudero pointed out their House counterparts have not even acted upon on the three impeachment complaints submitted one after the other in December last year. However, it turned out the Lower House decided to archive the first three impeachment complaints and approved in whirlwind fashion the fourth impeachment case before they adjourned their sessions and went into recess that day.
The House led by the Speaker voted 215, or more than the required one-third vote of the total members of the Lower Chamber, to approve it. Immediately after the voting was done, House secretary-general Reginald Velasco motored all the way from the Batasan Pambansa in Quezon City to the Senate building on Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City to personally transmit the House-approved fourth impeachment complaint.
However, neither Escudero as presiding officer nor Senate majority leader Francis Tolentino acknowledged receipt of the impeachment complaint. Despite official transmittal within the hours before the last session day of both chambers adjourned, the senators went into recess also starting that night. Because half of the present number of 23 senators running for the May 12 national and local elections are already on the campaign trail.
The next day, Escudero explained the Senate will only be able to act on the impeachment complaint in session when they all return on June 2. He conceded though the impeachment trial might likely cross over to the 20th Congress with the 12 newly elected senators. Anyway, the Senate is a continuing body that has already acquired jurisdiction over the impeachment complaint, he added.
The Senate President argued – and rightly so – why should the senators be pressured to start the impeachment proceedings when their House counterparts sat on the impeachment complaint for almost two months.
However, Escudero’s arguments apparently stand on loose ground. As far as retired Supreme Court (SC) associate justice and one of the framers of the 1987 Constitution, Adolf Azcuna, is concerned, the only time the Senate acquires jurisdiction over the impeachment complaint is when the senators convene as the impeachment court and take their new oaths as impeachment judges.
Notably, all these questions and controversies are now raised no less by VP Sara before the SC last week. Herself a lawyer, VP Sara elevated to the SC the alleged legal and constitutional infirmities of the impeachment complaint against her. Her battery of lawyers led by her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, have thus asked the High Court to dismiss the fourth impeachment complaint.
VP Sara named the Senate President along with the Speaker in her petition to the SC.
Both Escudero and Romualdez, along with the rest of the elected members of the 19th Congress, are possible appointees to become the new VP in case VP Sara is impeached. But this early, Escudero vowed not to accept the VP appointment if offered to him.
A separate petition filed by pro-Duterte lawyers from Mindanao similarly raised the same grounds for the SC to step in and stop altogether the impeachment proceedings against the VP. But another petition filed ahead of these two petitions at the SC asked the High Court to compel the Senate to start “forthwith” the impeachment trial in accordance to the letter and spirit of the Constitution.
The Senate President was later also named in another petition that questioned the alleged illegal “insertions” and alleged “blank” line-item provisions that were made in the Congress-approve 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA). Just yesterday, another petition was filed at the SC that included the Senate President, along with the Speaker and Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, as respondents to explain the “zero” subsidy under the 2025 GAA given to the state-owned Philippine Health Insurance Corp.
Escudero’s woes brought to mind the valedictory speech of an emotional Zubiri after he turned over the gavel to the new Senate presiding officer. In his privilege speech, Zubiri admitted he was “heartbroken” and announced he will henceforth be an independent member of the Senate.
When asked why he felt “heartbroken,” Zubiri explained, without equivocation, in Tagalog, roughly translated this way: “Of course I am heartbroken. I am not an enemy to the powers that lead. But perhaps for not following instructions, I was hit.” At least, Zubiri knew where the “hits” came from.
In the case of Escudero, the “hits” on him will come from all over the place. Uneasy is the head that wears the crown.