Section 3(4), Article XI of the 1987 Constitution states: “In case the verified complaint or resolution of impeachment is filed by at least one-third of all the Members of the House, the same shall constitute the Articles of Impeachment, and trial by the Senate shall forthwith proceed.”
Article XI deals with the accountability of public officers. Nowhere in the article does it say that Senate trial of an official impeached by the House of Representatives is optional.
But this may be the game plan of senators supporting Sara Duterte, as she looks set to become the first Vice President to be impeached twice, the second time likely today.
Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson hinted at the possibility of the minority attempting to prevent the chamber from convening as an impeachment court.
Senators under their leader during the 19th Congress, Francis Escudero, had already redefined “forthwith” in the constitutional provision, and the Supreme Court recently backed this broad interpretation by ruling that the word referred to a “reasonable period” before Senate trial.
Whether the months-long waiting period for the Senate trial was “reasonable” has become moot, as the SC also injected its own interpretation of the constitutional provisions on the process by which officials including SC justices can be impeached.
So this time, it won’t be surprising if the Duterte diehard supporters or DDS in the Senate will again try to apply a broad interpretation of that one-sentence Section 3(4), giving themselves the option to refuse to convene as a court and try an impeached official.
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Too bad senators can’t be impeached.
Taxpayers even have to pay each of them about P300,000 in basic monthly salary plus millions in maintenance and operating expenses, not to mention their billions in pork barrel allocations, just so they can shirk their constitutional duties or twist constitutional provisions to suit their needs. Or, in the case of Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, just so they can go AWOL for six months, with full pay.
In countries such as Japan or South Korea, such an absentee lawmaker would not even have to be asked to forgo his pay; he would have volunteered to do so, out of delicadeza.
Or better yet, being incapacitated from performing his duties by fear of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC), Senator Bato would have volunteered to resign.
The absence of delicadeza among public officials, however, is not surprising. Many of them probably haven’t even read (or if they have, they don’t understand or care) Section 1, Article XI of the Constitution: “Public office is a public trust. Public officers and employees must, at all times, be accountable to the people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and efficiency; act with patriotism and justice, and lead modest lives.”
In compliance with that last part alone about leading modest lives, up to 99 percent of elective officials could fail. Chronically remorseless, they would probably say, define “modest.” Or, as the unlamented former ombudsman Samuel Martires put it when he announced a stop to lifestyle checks, “simple living” is subjective.
For someone like Zaldy Co, would a 10-bedroom home along Paris’ Champs-Elysees – dubbed “the most beautiful avenue in the world” – be considered immodest?
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Co’s lawyer has said that if Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla could find that house in Paris, he could have it. What no one has denied so far is that Co is seeking political asylum in France, where his wife Mylene was reported shopping in the high-end boutiques as late as September last year, at the height of the flood control and budget scandal.
The resigned Ako Bicol party-list congressman is said to be holding a long-term visa (not passport as I erroneously wrote previously) in Portugal, so it’s interesting that he decided to apply for asylum in France, and traveled across Europe to get there.
Co’s impressive ability to stay outside the reach of Philippine authorities, along with the failure to go after resigned House speaker Martin Romualdez, are being cited by the DDS in framing VP Sara as a victim of political persecution.
The narrative appears to be resonating among Duterte grassroots supporters particularly in Mindanao, although the VP’s survey ratings continue to slip. The narrative may also be fueling this suspected game plan of the DDS in the Senate to stop the impeachment trial even before it gets underway, by blocking the convening of the court.
Senate President Tito Sotto has vowed to convene the court a day (or perhaps more accurately, the first working day) after the Articles of Impeachment are transmitted to the chamber by the House.
That’s a vast improvement from Chiz Escudero sitting on the first impeachment complaint. But as Sen. Robinhood Padilla put it, the minority is duty-bound to oppose the majority.
This is news to many people. You can argue with these senators that an impeachment trial is not optional but mandatory on the part of the Senate. But will they agree? Don’t hold your breath.