A petition for mandamus was filed before the Supreme Court seeking to compel the Senate to begin the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
Former Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) special counsel Catalino Generillo Jr. filed the petition, with Senate President Francis Escudero as the named respondent.
“The honorable members of the Senate, individually or collectively, are not suffering from any kind of disability, physical or mental, that prevents them from constituting themselves into an impeachment court,” Generillo’s petition read.
In the mandamus petition, Generillo also interpreted “forthwith” by citing the Oxford definition of “immediately” and “without delay.”
It also cited the need to resolve the Constitutional issue while noting the weight of the proceedings.
“There are constitutional issues in the petition which deserve the attention of this Court in view of their seriousness, novelty and weight as precedents.”
“The Constitution does not allow the Senate to procrastinate during the period it is on recess whether it shall constitute itself into an impeachment court and try the Vice President,” the petition added.
As this developed, a member of the House prosecution panel appealed to the Senate to start working on the impeachment trial, noting that delaying the proceedings would only serve to deny justice.
“The sooner we start the impeachment trial, the better. The Senate has been criticized already. We should have started the impeachment now,” Iloilo Rep. Lorenz Defensor said.
Rene Sarmiento, a member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission, said the Senate can convene as an impeachment court even if Congress is on break.
Former presidential adviser Teresita Deles said the decision of the Senate to push back the impeachment trial is not aligned with the provision of the Constitution.
“The Constitution is forthright with this. Once the impeachment complaint reaches the Senate, the impeachment trial should start,” said Deles, who was part of the group that filed the first impeachment complaint against the Vice President.
“The Constitution does not say that if they are in recess, that they should wait for the recess to be finished. It does not say to do so only at your convenience. What the Constitution stated is forthwith: The impeachment trial should start,” she added.
Escudero said the earliest possible schedule for the Upper Chamber to act on the impeachment complaint will be on June 2, when Congress resumes session after the midterm elections.
And while a special session may be called during the break, it cannot be to convene an impeachment court, Escudero said.
“That (call for a special session) can happen. But the calling of a special session, as far as I know, is not to convene an impeachment court. As far as I know, the calling of a special session is for important things and bills that need to be passed,” he said.
“According to our Constitution, convening an impeachment court is not covered by that provision related to the special session. Legally, it can’t be done because the impeachment court was not convened before Congress went on break,” Escudero added.
Senate President Francis Escudero said the trial will likely kick off in July, during the 20th Congress, after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s State of the Nation Address.
“It will not happen forthwith, not immediately the next morning or the following day, because the Senate still has many preparations to complete before the trial begins,” he said in an interview on dzBB.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline “SC asked to order Senate begin VP Sara impeachment.”