Stop the clock

By hook or by crook, the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte must get underway. Embattled Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero held his sway over attempts to ram through last Monday the impeachment trial two days ahead of schedule. Senate minority leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel lll and his deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros tried but failed to railroad their colleagues into ganging up on the Senate chief.

Surrounded by pro-impeachment rallyists at the Senate building, Senators Pimentel and Hontiveros carried their sentiments right into the august halls of plenary in session. On the Senate floor, the two minority leaders echoed the grounds of pro-impeachment groups to stop the perceived dilly-dallying on the part of Escudero. There were suspicions and fears of seeming devious plots to derail, if not to prevent, the impeachment of VP Sara. Whether it is unfounded or not, Pimentel and Hontiveros and their like-minded pro-impeachment rally leaders could not wait another two days more for Escudero to convene the Senate as an impeachment body.

On the other hand, Senate majority leader Francis “Tol” Tolentino and fellow Senators Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, Robinhood Padilla and even presidential sister Sen. Imee Marcos, who toed the line of the Senate leadership, were being accused as pro-VP Sara. If that’s the case, then how should we call Senators Pimentel, Hontiveros and others pushing the pro-impeachment moves?

Yet all of these senators kept mouthing as their excuse from commenting one way or the other on the impeachment on their roles as senator-judges. But the impeachment proceedings – while following the judicial process – is really nothing but a political act of each and every senator-judge, whatever his or her vote will be.

Thankfully, a neophyte Senator Raffy Tulfo inserted himself into the heated debate on the floor to ask his senior Senate colleagues to just to put the matter to a vote, whether to constitute already as impeachment court right there, right now.

To a certain extent, the Pimentel and Hontiveros team-up got Escudero to kick off grudgingly the Senate impeachment process. It was obviously a compromise deal they worked out among the senators when session was suspended. Escudero took his oath as the presiding officer of the impeachment court to render “impartial justice in accordance with the laws of the land and the Constitution.” And yesterday, the remaining 22 senators took their oaths en masse as senator-judges.

Fears of such seeming attempts to delay the impeachment trial were bolstered after Escudero rescheduled the convening of the Senate impeachment court from June 2 originally to June 11. Escudero’s leadership has been under fire since Feb. 5 when the House officially transmitted the Articles of Impeachment against VP Sara but which the Senate did not bother to even acknowledge receipt. But both chambers of the 19th Congress adjourned for the election campaign period.

To obviously appease the ensuing uproar from anti-VP Sara personalities and groups in and out of Congress, Escudero assured the public the Senate will take it up before the 19th Congress adjourns sine die. But a few days before they resumed session, Escudero announced out of the blue that he had decided to reschedule it again.

No less than VP Sara has publicly declared she wants the impeachment trial to proceed. A lawyer by profession and feisty like her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, VP Sara swears readiness for the impeachment trial to answer all accusations hurled her way.

VP Sara metaphorically called her impeachment trial a “bloodbath” once it gets underway. Who is ready to draw first blood?

Former senator and now Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Sonny Angara could only heave a sigh of relief. Angara cut short his second and last term as Senator in the 19th Congress in July last year to join the Cabinet of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) as DepEd secretary. Angara took over from VP Sara, who resigned as concurrent DepEd secretary.

Senate president pro tempore Jinggoy Estrada had to sub for Escudero every now and then while the debate on the floor went in different directions, depending on who was interpellating who. Or was it a smoke break for Escudero to chill? Remember how a video of an excerpt of Senate session went viral on social media last week? It showed Escudero leaving his seat as presiding officer while Hontiveros was giving her privilege speech.

At that point, Hontiveros was citing precedents on impeachment trials of former American presidents whose cases crossed over to the next US Congress. Loaded apparently by pro-impeachment vloggers, did they even bother to check if Escudero just perhaps stepped out to relieve himself in the men’s room?

Speaking of precedents from the US Congress, has any one of them checked if they can “stop the clock” as a parliamentary procedure? This could be possible amid the real time constraints of the impeachment trial that the present 19th Congress needs to cross over to the 20th Congress.

The term “stop the clock” is a legislative practice that literally or notionally stops the clock (or moves the hands backwards), usually for the purpose of meeting a constitutional or statutory deadline. Google search though cited “stopping the clock” as a controversial practice in parliamentary procedure.

“Sometimes it is done to allow more time for lobbying or deal-making to obtain the necessary votes for one side to prevail on a measure. Some legislatures actually ‘stop the clock’ and others simply use it as a metaphor for continuing business after a time deadline has passed,” it added. “Stopping the clock” is also sometimes done for ceremonial purposes to ensure that both houses of a bicameral legislature adjourn simultaneously.

For the past two days of sessions, the senators indicated how he or she will eventually vote at the end of the impeachment trial.

We will know that today, from among the present 23 senators led by Escudero, who will be the brave one to draw first blood.