The Senate yesterday asked the Supreme Court to excuse it from commenting on Vice President Sara Duterte’s petition against her impeachment since the Constitution grants it sole authority over impeachment cases.
In a three-page filing, Senate legal counsel Maria Valentina Cruz submitted a Manifestation Ad Cautelam, a precautionary statement, instead of the required comment.
“Respondent Senate, which has the sole power to try and decide all cases of impeachment under the Constitution, cannot therefore possibly make a comment on the Petition and thus, asks the Honorable Court that it be excused from submitting the comment,” the filing stated.
Copies of the statement were sent to Duterte’s legal team, the House of Representatives, and the Office of the Solicitor General.
Duterte, in her petition filed in February, questioned the constitutionality of the impeachment complaint against her.
She argued that the process violated the Constitution’s one-year ban on multiple impeachment complaints, claiming that the House had previously acted on three complaints by not forwarding them to the Speaker’s office.
Duterte was impeached by the House of Representatives on February 5, with 215 lawmakers voting in favor, surpassing the required number to send the case to the Senate.
The Senate will act as the impeachment court and is expected to begin the trial when Congress resumes on June 2 after the midterm elections.