MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews / 15 February) – The Supreme Court has been asked to order the Senate to immediately act on the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte.
In the petition he filed Friday, lawyer Catalino Generillo Jr. asked the SC to issue a writ of mandamus for the Senate to be constituted into an impeachment court and “forthwith” proceed with a public trial of the impeachment case filed by the House of Representatives.
Senate President Francis Escudero said the impeachment case will be discussed when Congress resumes its session on June 2, and trial might start in July.
The senators went into a break for the election season without tackling the articles of impeachment transmitted to them on their last session day, February 5.
Generillo said that in its provision on impeachment trial, the Constitution uses the word “forthwith,” which means “immediately,” “at once,” “instantly,” “directly,” “right away,” “now,” “instantaneously,” and “without delay,” according to the Oxford dictionary.
“In the final analysis, the Constitution does not allow the Senate to procrastinate during the period it is on [sic] recess whether it shall constitute itself into an impeachment court and try the Vice President,” he added.
For his part, retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio last Sunday said the Senate can convene and hold a special session for the impeachment trial “as long as there is a will.”
Carpio said the President can call for a special session to work on legislation like amending the General Appropriations Act. After that, the Senate can now convene a trial since there is a session, he explained.
Carpio, however, said the Senate may not have enough time left to conclude the trial, and it will be carried over to the 20th Congress.
A total of 215 out of 306 members of the House voted for impeachment, higher than the one-third requirement for the complaint to be transmitted to the Senate for trial.
A guilty verdict will mean Duterte’s removal as vice president and ineligibility to hold any public office.
The vice president has declared she will run for president in May 2028. She was the running mate of then-candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the May 2022 presidential elections. (MindaNews)
