‘Senate can start processing pleadings on Sara impeachment’

MANILA, Philippines — Even if the Senate has not formally convened as an impeachment court, it can allow the exchange of official communications and other administrative matters, a member of the House prosecution team said.

“We want to speed up the process of the pleadings. So when the Senate convenes, all of us will be ready and all the pleadings dispensed with,” Iloilo Rep. Lorenz Defensor said. “We have seen how the Senate works very hard. Even during their break, they can conduct committee hearings. Some of them, even during the campaign period, are still working.”

Defensor, in an interview on ANC, defended the motion they filed asking senators to issue a writ of summons and compel Vice President Sara Duterte to answer the case.

“We want them to issue it now. It will expedite the process, especially with the pleadings,” he said, adding that it would allow both sides to complete their pleadings before the trial formally begins on June 2.

The move to have Duterte refute the seven Articles of Impeachment is anchored on Rule 7 of the Senate Rules of Impeachment, which provides a non-extendible 10-day deadline for the impeached official to file an answer.

Minority Leader Marcelino Libanan, House lead prosecutor, believes that the Senate can start the impeachment trial, noting that the chamber even conducted an inquiry into the March 11 arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte.