Overthrow them

The nation, the Filipino people, are in a rage.

People from nearly all sectors – the urban poor, the rural folk, labor, the professions, the academe, the Church, the NGOs are mobilizing, preparing to do battle with the powers-that-be.

All because of one man, Francis “Chiz” Escudero, the Senate President. And all because of one woman, Vice President Sara Duterte.

Escudero and pro-Duterte senators Bato dela Rosa and Francis Tolentino and their ilk in the 24-member Senate, are trying mightily to stop the trial of VP Duterte. With malicious smirk and effortless impunity.

In February 2025, at least 215 congressmen, 68 percent of the entire House membership, impeached Duterte for betrayal of public trust and six other alleged crimes, including bribery, corruption, plunder, unexplained wealth and plotting to assassinate President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos and House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez.

Under the Constitution, Article XI, “Accountability of Public Officers,” Section 4, “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.”

Escudero interprets “shall forthwith proceed” to mean – “not to proceed at all.” The exact opposite of the mandate, order and language of the Constitution.

If the Escudero cabal succeeds in their gross violation of the Constitution, it could lead to any or all of three things:

1) The ouster of Escudero – as a lawyer (UP grad), as senator and as Senate president; 2) the ouster of Sara Duterte as vice president and 3) the ouster or dissolution of the entire Senate of the 19th Congress.

In the past, people were able to topple two sitting, popular and powerful presidents – Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. in 1986 and Joseph “Erap” Estrada in 2001. If people could oust a Marcos or an Erap Estrada, why not lesser mortals like the vice president and the senators?

At the time of their ouster, Marcos Sr. and Erap had over 60 percent job approval ratings.

Today’s high ratings could turn into tomorrow’s burning rage.

The evidence against Sara, for any or all the seven charges, is so damning one cannot but declare her guilty. That is why Duterte’s trial must proceed to enable her to give her side.

How much is her wealth? How did P615 million in confidential funds disappear like magic, from the bank direct to a private home? How was P125 million in confidential funds spent in just eleven days and made to disappear with the help of fictitious names (of restaurants, dishes and elected officials); high rents for safe houses that do not exist; alleged payments for youth leadership seminars in army camps already paid for by the army and similar ghost expenses? P254.89 million in confidential funds went to 1,322 fictitious persons. P73.28 million malversed at DepEd in the fourth quarter of 2022.

On March 15, 2023, one person, a DepEd disbursement officer, did a miracle – P1.37 million was disbursed, physically, in one day to 26 payees spread across the archipelago – Pasay, Cavite, Laguna, Ifugao and Zamboanga.

These are just starters. Still to be heard are even more mind-boggling amounts of corruption amounting to billions.

Former Constitutional Commissioner and Supreme Court Justice Adolf Azcuna posted the following in his FB:

(1) As long as Senate President Escudero gets to start the process before the 19th Congress lapses on June 30 when the term of office of representatives and outgoing senators end, he will have done well. All he needs is to get the Articles read to the Senate and served on the Respondent. That will trigger the Senate’s jurisdiction over the case. The Senate in the 20th Congress can continue the process of proceeding with the trial.

(2) A dismissal of the Articles by the Senate of the 19th Congress after receiving it and without proceeding to trial would be a grave violation of the Constitution. It can be reversed by the Supreme Court or by the Senate of the 20th Congress on a proper motion for reconsideration.

(3). It is crucial tho that someone against the dismissal must vote with the majority that votes to dismiss because only someone who voted with the majority can ask for reconsideration. Someone who will remain as senator in the 20th Congress.

(4) The Articles of Impeachment received by the Senate in the 19th Congress will not lapse with that Congress but will be carried over to the 20th Congress because Trial of Impeachment Cases is not a function of Legislative Power but it is a Constituent Power. It is lodged on the Senate specifically, not under Art VI on Legislative Power but under Article XI on Accountability of Public Officers.

So it does not fall under the rule that unfinished business lapses with the outgoing Congress because the Constitution says the opposite – that the trial must “proceed,” meaning it must continue until it is finished. It cannot proceed if it is made to lapse. Since it must proceed, it follows that it does not lapse.

(5) It was I who drafted Art XI of the Constitution in the Constitutional Commission, including the thematic Sec 1 that states that public office is a public trust and that public officers and employees must at all times be accountable to the people. At ALL times.

I also wrote the procedural Section, including the word “forthwith” referring to the need for the Senate to proceed to trial after the House itself adopts by 1/3 or more votes a Resolution of Impeachment which thereby constitutes the Articles of Impeachment such that “trial by the Senate shall forthwith proceed,” and it is precisely meant to mean immediately and without unreasonable delay or, in the national language official version “agad-agad.”

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