From father to son

Fresh from their month-long recess, lawmakers of the 20th Congress resume sessions starting today. But the 24-man Senate and the 317 members of the House of Representatives have also only a month left of session days. Both chambers will soon be winding down their first regular session per their joint calendar ending on June 5 this year. They will be in sine die adjournment from June 6 to July 26.

The Senate and the House will hold joint sessions anew by tradition for the State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 27. To signal the start of the second regular session of the 20th Congress, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) will deliver the penultimate SONA before his term ends in June 2028.

Naturally, PBBM will include in the upcoming SONA his urgent administration bills either still pending in Congress or introduce new proposed legislative measures. PBBM will likely convene the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC). Usually, the President convenes the LEDAC with leaders of Congress before or after the SONA.

We expect our legislators to act with urgency on new and old pending bills in Congress to address the impact of the Middle East conflict that spawned, among other things, the prevailing oil price crisis in our country. If we go by the timetable of the on-going impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte, it is a top priority for completion. Come hell or high water, so to speak, this has to be concluded, one way or the other.

Thus, the legislative priorities have to be squeezed in to a political process called impeachment.

At the Lower Chamber, the House committee on justice held its clarificatory hearing last April 29 when they voted 53-0 to find probable cause for impeaching the VP. Although supposed to be in congressional recess, the House leadership headed by Speaker Faustino Dy III approved a resolution to allow the justice committee – along with the other House committees – to continue their public hearings, by tradition even during their Holy Week break.

Incidentally, a supplementary petition was filed at the Supreme Court (SC) last week by pro-Duterte lawyers led by Israelito Torreon questioning the holding of the impeachment hearing even during congressional recess. They argued the impeachment proceedings must be conducted only when Congress is in session as enshrined in our country’s 1987 Constitution. Much earlier, Torreon et al first filed a petition for temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop the latest House impeachment proceedings against VP Sara. But no TRO has been issued to date.

The House committee proceeded with the public hearings on multiple complaints, focusing on the alleged misuse of confidential funds at the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and while she was concurrently the secretary of the Department of Education. They subsequently voted unanimously one after the other that the twin impeachment complaints against the accused official were sufficient in form as well as in substance. The newest charges dwelt on the alleged “grave threats” of VP Sara against PBBM, et al and on her and her husband’s statement of assets and liabilities (SALN).

The House justice committee will hold its final public hearing today to finalize the committee report on VP Sara’s impeachment. They will attempt to consolidate the two impeachment complaints. Then these two complaints will be drafted into a House justice committee report as a House resolution to be taken up in plenary session. After three clarificatory public hearings with neither VP Sara nor her lawyers attending, House justice committee chairperson Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro announced the committee report will be ready for plenary voting on May 11.

Meanwhile, Senate President Vicente Sotto III called a closed-door caucus last week and discussed the looming possibility they will eventually be convening as the designated impeachment court. Offhand, Sotto refused to speculate for now if and when the impeachment proceedings will go beyond the remaining session days into the sine die adjournment.

“As soon as we receive it, then that’s the time we will officially decide on what to do with the timing. Definitely, there’s one thing for sure: once we receive it, we will convene the following day as an impeachment court,” Sotto vowed.

Meanwhile, VP Sara’s lawyer Salvador Paolo Panelo Jr. disclosed he will soon file perjury charges against former senator Antonio Trillanes IV for reviving the “same old” accusations against his client and other members of her family. This was after Trillanes testified at the House clarificatory hearing against VP Sara, her husband Mans Carpio and her father, ex-president Rodrigo Duterte, of having allegedly received drug money worth P181.6 million from a certain Sammy Uy.

Panelo noted Trillanes merely reiterated his past allegations and presented the same as acts tantamount to impeachable offenses, including betrayal of public trust, graft and corruption and other high crimes against VP Sara. Trillanes identified Uy as a drug lord and swore under oath the Duterte family encashed drug money in checks allegedly tied to illegal drugs.

 Panelo earlier filed perjury charges at the Taguig City courts against Ramil Madriaga, who claimed to be a former OVP security aide but is currently detained in Bicutan jail for a kidnapping case. The self-confessed “bagman” of VP Sara testified at the House clarificatory hearing that he delivered sums of money out of the questioned OVP confidential funds.

At the PolitikoTalks show Friday night, Panelo revealed he had already prepared as early as last year the perjury case against Trillanes upon the imprimatur of former president Duterte. However, Panelo recalled ex-president Duterte was whisked to The Hague in March last year before he could initiate the filing of perjury complaint against Trillanes. Thus, he rued, the filing of legal actions against Trillanes was relegated to the back burner.

Panelo insisted Trillanes’ allegations were proven in the past as nothing but lies. There seems to be fire in the belly of the namesake son of former Duterte chief presidential legal counsel. It has set him off to resume full steam ahead to stop Trillanes from further spewing out attacks against the Dutertes.