House panel serves impeachment notice to VP

MANILA, Philippines —   With her impeachment cases now deemed sufficient in substance, Vice President Sara Duterte has been given 10 days to submit her comments, in what the House committee on justice said would be the beginning of the “third stage” of the impeachment process.

“Like what you heard yesterday (Wednesday) before the committee adjourned, we issued a notice to the Vice President for her to file her answer to the two impeachment complaints within the non-extendable period of 10 days,” said justice committee chairperson Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro in a radio interview.

She reminded the public that the panel has a 60-session-day window to submit its report to the plenary.

Luistro explained that the process has now entered its stage where parties involved exchange pleadings and begin submitting evidence to the committee.

“Like what I have said before, we call this responsive pleadings. It is responsive because they are answering. This is what we call third stage. All documents are moving,” Luistro said.

She said that while calendar days apply to the filing of responsive pleadings, the rules set the broader deadline for the committee’s work in terms of session days.

“The only prescriptive period that was provided by the rules is the period of 60 session days within which the Justice committee should be able to transmit the committee report to the plenary,” Luistro said.

Luistro made the clarification when asked if the timeline was based on calendar days.“No. This is session days. What I only saw covered by the rules on calendar days is the period of filing of responsive pleadings, the rest are session days,” the Batangas lawmaker said in English and Filipino.

Duterte’s lawyers have acknowledged receipt of notice from the House of Representatives’ committee on justice directing them to respond to two verified impeachment complaints against her.

“We acknowledge receipt of the notice served today. At this point, we see no need to issue any further comment,” Michael Poa, spokesman for Duterte’s legal team in her impeachment case, said.

After receiving her comment, the justice committee will proceed to the next phase of hearings to determine whether probable cause exists to approve the Articles of Impeachment.

VP bank records may be opened

Luistro also said her panel may compel the production of bank records and the appearance of key witnesses.

“The exception to the Bank Secrecy Law is impeachment proceeding,” she said.

“As a matter of fact, that is the reason why in yesterday’s (Wednesday) hearing, I volunteered to the members of the Justice committee” the information that “impeachment is the only avenue where you can look into and avail of the documents without violating the Bank Secrecy Law.”

She said the committee is armed with “power of compulsory process,” allowing it to require the submission of documents – including bank records – as well as to compel witnesses to appear and testify during hearings. Luistro said such powers cover the “issuance of subpoena duces tecum if it pertains to relevant documents.”

“So the only way  to request a copy of bank document is by the compulsory process of the Justice committee to compel the bank to produce these bank documents. That is by way of subpoena duces tecum,” she pointed out. –  Bella Cariaso