MANILA, Philippines — The University of the Philippines College of Law faculty yesterday asked senators to comply with their constitutional duty to “forthwith proceed” with the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
The open letter – entitled “To Forthwith Proceed” and signed by almost 100 faculty members of the UP College of Law – was issued amid moves to declare the impeachment against Duterte functionally dismissed.
An unsigned draft Senate resolution is being circulated, seeking the “de facto dismissal” of the impeachment complaint against Vice President Duterte without subjecting her to a trial.
“As teachers and scholars of the law, we believe that the Senate’s dismissal without hearing even a single witness will mean its abandonment of its proud tradition as an august chamber and permanently alter our system of checks and balances. It will also undermine the people’s trust in the Senate as an independent and impartial institution before which the highest officials of the land may demonstrate and prove their fealty to the principles of accountability, public service, and democracy,” the faculty members of UP College of Law said.
“We therefore earnestly urge our Honorable Senators: let the truth unfold. We call on the Senate of the Philippines to comply with its constitutional duty to ‘forthwith proceed’ with the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Z. Duterte,” they said.
“We do so because we wish to see the evidence, hear the Vice-President’s defense, and with our fellow Filipinos, judge for ourselves her fitness to continue in public service. In these difficult moments, the people look to their Senate to be the forum for the country’s most important truth-telling procedure because of its seniority, independence, and reputation for statesmanship,” they added.
No dismissal without trial
The Senate cannot legally dismiss the impeachment case against Vice President Duterte without holding a trial, one of the framers of the 1987 Constitution said on Thursday.
“That’s because under the Constitution, it is the duty of the Senate to hear the case. So that’s not hearing the case when you entertain a motion to dismiss,” lawyer Christian Monsod said over radio dzBB.
Sen. Ronald dela Rosa on Wednesday revealed that he and other senators were drafting a resolution to dismiss the impeachment complaint.
When asked whether the Senate can vote on such a resolution, Monsod said: “In other words, the majority of the Senate can stop the impeachment proceedings, that cannot be because they have a duty to conduct the hearing under the Constitution. They are violating the Constitution.”
Sen. Francis Tolentino earlier said the impeachment case against Duterte would be considered “functionally dismissed” if the Senate fails to conduct the trial before the 19th Congress adjourns on June 30.
Senate President Francis Escudero also said senators will vote on whether the trial should be considered moot by then or carried over to the next Congress.
Monsod, however, said the impeachment process could continue under the 20th Congress since the Senate is a continuing body.
“There’s no issue there, the Senate is a continuing body. What technicality are they talking about?” he said, emphasizing that at no point is the Senate without 24 members.
“If they want technicality, you know, at noon of June 30 when the outgoing senators leave, at that exact moment, the incoming 12 assume office. So actually, if you look at technicalities, there is no time at which there are no 24 senators,” he explained.
Sen. Imee Marcos said the Senate should dismiss the “invalid” impeachment complaint against the Vice President so that the administration could save itself from the humiliation of losing the trial.
“This is why I am inviting the senators to go on caucus, so that we can reconcile our differing opinions and ideas about this,” Marcos said in a press briefing yesterday.
“I have very serious concerns about the validity of the impeachment complaint which arrived here in the Senate. The validity of the endorsed impeachment complaint should be assailed. The transmittal here of the fourth complaint is invalid after the House sat on their first three impeachment complaints,” Marcos said.
For her, it is not only the Duterte bloc in the Senate which wants to dismiss the impeachment complaint without going to trial.
“I feel like even within the administration, there are groups which do not want this to continue anymore, because they might be put to shame if they fail to get the numbers,” Marcos said.
“I think the administration is also interested in invalidating this, because they also fear that they might lose… It will be more embarrassing for them to proceed to trial only to lose,” she added.
But Senator-elect Panfilo Lacson urged his soon-to-be colleagues to let the impeachment complaint against Duterte cross over to the 20th Congress for the Senate to convene as an impeachment court.
Lacson, an alumnus of former chief justice Renato Corona’s impeachment trial, said Duterte can be tried by members of the next Congress.
“The trial can cross over because the Senate acts not as a legislative body, but as an impeachment court, and it is a different animal,” Lacson said on “Storycon” over One News. “It just so happened that this is the same Senate but of a different composition.”
The Vice President should not depend on any senator-judge in pushing for the dismissal of the impeachment case filed against her, lawyer Romulo Macalintal said.
“No senator-judge in the present impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte can take the cudgels for her by filing a Senate Resolution seeking the outright dismissal of the case,” Macalintal said in a statement yesterday.
“If Duterte wants the case dismissed for lack of jurisdiction, she must personally file the necessary motion. She cannot rely on any assistance or intervention from senators who will eventually sit as judges in the impeachment trial,” he explained.
Macalintal stressed that the role of the senators in impeachment case is to hear and decide the case and not to defend any party, but to resolve the issues presented before them by the parties involved.
“Their constitutional mandate is to decide the impeachment case — not to side with either party,” he added.
There will be a three-day prayer vigil to urge the Senate to begin the impeachment trial against Vice President Duterte, Caritas Novaliches deputy executive director Fr. Flavie Villanueva said yesterday.
Villanueva invited the public to participate in the prayer vigil from June 9 to 11 at the GSIS Building that currently houses the Senate.
“The evidence is very clear. Let it be seen, let the trial of Sara Duterte begin,” said Villanueva, founder of the St. Arnold Janssen Kalinga Center that offers dignified burial to victims of extrajudicial killings. – Mark Ernest Villeza, Jose Rodel Clapano, Delon Porcalla, Evelyn Macairan, Marc Jayson Cayabyab, Rhodina VIllanuea, EJ Macababbad