Chiz vs 3 ex-Senate chiefs

Originally scheduled to grind starting today, the Senate leadership decided to reset anew the impeachment process against Vice President Sara Duterte. Out-of-the blue, Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero announced last week he has decided to reset the presentation of the Articles of Impeachment to June 11 instead. This is two days before both chambers of the 19th Congress adjourn sine die.

VP Sara left last week to visit at The Hague her detained father, former president Rodrigo Duterte. She is due to return to Manila this week. Interviewed at The Hague, VP Sara “included” herself in the 88 percent of respondents in the latest survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) that wanted her to face the impeachment and answer all the allegations against her. But before she left, VP Sara announced her every intention to face the impeachment trial. She likened to a “bloodbath” her face-to-face confrontation with her accusers at the Senate impeachment trial.

But this won’t happen for now. Under a jointly approved calendar, both chambers of Congress spent almost three months of recess for the duration of the May 12 national and local elections. As it turned out, the next day, Escudero along with other leaders of Congress met with President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) at Malacañang Palace. As admitted by presidential spokesperson Claire Castro, PBBM convened the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) with Escudero and other senators and House leaders in attendance.

PBBM called for the LEDAC meeting on the eve of the resumption of Congress that is holding its third and final regular session until June 13. Castro claimed the impeachment of VP Sara was not tackled at all during the LEDAC meeting.

If indeed it was not taken up at the LEDAC meeting, then what led Escudero to decide to reset the impeachment process?

Escudero disclosed he sent a letter to explain his decision to Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez. A copy also was transmitted to the Office of the Vice President (OVP), according to him. In a press statement he issued late Thursday afternoon, Escudero justified the unilateral decision of the Senate leadership as he enumerated at least 12 legislative measures that Congress vowed to pass before the end of this Congress.

As discussed during the LEDAC meeting, Escudero enumerated the following bills: Amendments to the Foreign Investors’ Long-Term Lease Act; E-Governance Act; Open Access in Data Transmission; Rationalization of the Fiscal Mining Regime; Amendments to the Universal Health Care Act; Virology Institute of the Philippines; Government Optimization Act; Amendments to the Right-of-Way Act; Setting the Term of Office of Barangay Officials and Members of the Sangguniang Kabataan; Judicial Fiscal Autonomy; Denatured Alcohol Tax and Anti-POGO Act.

Supposedly, this list is in the common legislative agenda priority measures. But according to Castro, President Marcos focused the LEDAC meeting on the passage of his administration’s own priority bills, including the National Government Rightsizing Program; Amendments to the Right-of-Way Act; Amendments to the Cooperative Code and the proposed National Disease Prevention and Management Authority. All the bills in the LEDAC common legislative agenda were already delivered by the House leadership as far as Speaker Romualdez is concerned. Actually, the 12 bills in the Escudero list have been pending approval at the Senate. 

In addition to these legislative priorities, Escudero cited the need for the Commission on Appointments (CA) to vet and confirm more than 200 presidential appointments before the adjournment. They include the ad interim appointments of three Cabinet secretaries, four officials of constitutional commissions, 39 foreign service officials and 277 newly promoted officers in the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The Senate President is the chairman of the 25-man CA, a bicameral body composed of equal numbers from the Senate and the House. As CA chairman, the Senate chief only votes in case of a deadlock. The CA also adjourns sine die with Congress. A presidential appointee is either passed or rejected by the CA. If rejected by the CA, the President must appoint a new one.

Incidentally, the CA in the coming Congress will have its hands full with new Cabinet officials recently appointed one after the other by PBBM. Although retained in the Marcos Cabinet, former Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla will have to go through the CA wringer again in his new Cabinet post as secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. 

Since the 19th Congress and the CA were in recess when PBBM implemented the first round of Cabinet revamp, Malacañang will have to issue ad interim appointments to Lotilla and other new Cabinet appointees. Since there is not enough material time for their confirmation hearings, the new presidential appointees subject to CA confirmation will cross over to the incoming 20th Congress.

This is the real cross over of unfinished legislative order of business between outgoing and incoming Congresses. This is not the same “cross over” that Escudero conceded long before the Senate could even start the impeachment trial of VP Sara and now he postponed it.

The outgoing Congress adjourned for recess last Feb. 5. On that same day, the House of Representatives officially transmitted to the Senate the Articles of Impeachment against VP Sara. But the senators went ahead to adjourn their session without acting on the impeachment.

From then on, the constitutional provision on impeachment “to start forthwith” buzzed in Escudero’s bejeweled ear.

As early as a week before, the Senate secretariat presented to media the readiness of the impeachment court to officially convene – from togas of the 24 senator-judges to the physical arrangements at the session hall.

Three former Senate presidents – re-elected Sen. Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, outgoing Senate minority leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III and ex-senator Franklin Drilon – all weighed in on this controversial “cross over.”

Both Sotto and Drilon believe the impeachment trial crossing over to the 20th Congress will lead to “justiciable” issue of its jurisdiction that can be questioned before the Supreme Court. Pimentel accused Escudero of violating the Senate’s own impeachment rules by this postponement.

Now what say you, Senate President Chiz?