“It is disgusting…seeing the senators prioritizing their politics instead of being more concerned with the plight of the public trying to survive due to increasing transport and food prices”
THE burning question of the day that we should not even be asking is, could the Senate legally not convene to try an impeachable official who has been impeached by the House if some or majority of the Senate members block the trial?
As we all have been taught in school, all our three Constitutions – the 1935, 1973 and the 1987 Constitution – tell us that in our system of government, the House impeaches and the Senate tries the case.
We have always understood this to mean that the Senate has no choice but to convene itself as a trial court to try an impeached official.
It is an obligatory duty because the Constitution says so. We have seen this happen already in the President Joseph Estrada and Chief Justice Renato Corona impeachment trials.
It appear,s however, that this doctrine that we Filipinos all know and have always taken for granted as a fact of political life in our system of government is now in disarray.
How did we arrive at this morass of a situation?
To some legal luminaries, it was when the Supreme Court intruded into a Constitutionally mandated process by declaring the first impeachment of VP Duterte as unconstitutional which this group believed was an overstep by the Supreme Court.
To others, it was when the Senate archived the impeachment, stopping the trial dead on its tracks.
With the forthcoming second impeachment of the VP, the trial might not even proceed at all since a new Senate President has just been installed who is politically aligned with the VP.
It could, however, proceed as stated by the new Senate President to formally and legally terminate the process given that those senators aligned with the VP have the numbers. This is because archiving the case again would leave the status of the VP in limbo.
If archived, who could for example stop the administration from saying the VP cannot perform her duties considering that her impeachment has not been resolved with finality?
The wise and prudent thing to do therefore is for the Senate to conduct a trial to close the case formally. But if a trial will take place, there will always be the risk that some of these senators will flip in exchange for money or something else.
Yes, the VP camp may be thinking that they now have the upper hand in the Senate but, in the overall scheme of things, it could be characterized as a Pyrrhic victory and short lived.
Yes, the Senate coup was well planned and executed especially with the sudden and surprise appearance of Senator Bato dela Rosa but, in the end, the surprise was on them.
From out of the blue, NBI agents were all over the Senate ready to arrest the senator on the basis of an ICC arrest warrant which Bato’s allies thought was non-existent.
To protect their ally, the Senate majority placed the senator under its “protective custody” which is an authority the Senate clearly does not have.
The Senate will have to allow the arrest of Bato dela Rosa even inside the Senate building and let him fight his case in our courts or else, even the Senate itself can be brought to court for obstruction of justice.
Bato should have not believed whoever convinced him to come out from hiding to vote in the Senate coup and simply stayed in the mountains of Davao.
But Bato should be the least of our worries considering the economic hardships we ordinary mortals are currently going thru.
It is disgusting to say the least seeing the senators prioritizing their politics instead of being more concerned with the plight of the public trying to survive due to increasing transport and food prices.
I find it difficult to feel sorry for Bato because, in the final analysis, he brought all his problems to himself.
He forgot that when he took his oath as an AFP officer in 1986, it was to serve the country and people first and not an individual. But, as they say, regrets always come at the end.
Finally, if the Senate will indeed convene as an impeachment court as announced by the new Senate President, he better see to it that it not be a “lutong macao” process because the whole nation is watching and will ultimately be the judge.
