The Akbayan party-list and civil society groups filed on Friday a motion urging the Supreme Court (SC) to dismiss the petition of Vice President Sara Duterte’s, which challenges the constitutionality of the impeachment complaint against her.
“The Vice President’s petition is legally unsound. Their complaint is that the one-year ban on initiating impeachment complaints has been violated. Four impeachment complaints have been filed, but only one of them has been initiated, and that is the verified complaint passed by more than 1/3 of the House members,” said Akbayan Rep. Percival Cendaña.
He added that the first three impeachment complaints were not referred to the Committee on Justice such that they do not qualify as initiated complaints.
Cendaña stressed that “everything done in the House is according to the Rules of Impeachment, which is based on the Constitution.”
He cited the landmark case of Francisco v. House of Representatives where the SC established that an impeachment complaint is initiated either by the act of filing a complaint and its referral or endorsement of the complaint to the House Committee on Justice, or by the filing by at least 1/3 of the members of the House of Representatives of a verified complaint or resolution of impeachment.
Cendaña also noted the SC’s role in ensuring accountability of public officials adding that the public will view the High Tribunal’s decision as either upholding the Constitution or shielding the Vice President.
Earlier today, retired SC senior associate justice Antonio Carpio has come to the defense of the House of Representatives, asserting that the Constitution was strictly followed in its resolution to impeach the vice president.
“The overriding issue here is whether the House of Representatives violated the provision of the Constitution mandating that an impeachment complaint ‘shall be included in the Order of Business within ten session days, and referred to the proper Committee within three days thereafter,” said the retired magistrate, who is familiar with the House’s official response to the High Court,” said Carpio.
