Tolentino won’t inhibit from Sara Duterte impeachment trial
Sen. Francis Tolentino (Photo from his office)
MANILA, Philippines — Senate Majority Leader Francis Tolentino on Thursday rejected a suggestion that he should inhibit himself from the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte for supposedly prejudging the case.
“What is the ground?” Tolentino asked over Radyo 630, when sought for comment on constitutionalist Christian Monsod’s remark that he and Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa should recuse themselves from the impeachment proceedings against Duterte.
Pressed if this means he would not heed Monsod’s suggestion, Tolentino answered in the affirmative.
“Yes, because I didn’t see any grounds,” the majority leader stressed.
Monsod, in the same radio interview earlier, said the two senators have already lost their independence with their attempts to stop the impeachment proceedings against Duterte.
“Where is their integrity? After doing all these things to stop the process and all that, they will participate when people already know where they stand. It seems like they’ve already made a prejudgment,” he observed.
“If that’s how they are, then they no longer have independence—they should not participate in the process. Where is their integrity?” asked Monsod, one of the framers of the 1987 Constitution.
Tolentino refuted this, saying he has never judged the merits of the impeachment case when he earlier remarked that the impeachment case against Duterte could be considered “functionally dismissed” should the Senate impeachment court fail to finish the trial before the 19th Congress ends on June 30, 2025.
“All I said was what is right according to the Constitution. What I said was that if the trial isn’t completed by June 30, then it’s over. That’s what I said—but I never judged the merits of the case,” the senator explained.
Dela Rosa, meanwhile, has owned up to a draft resolution urging the Senate to dismiss the impeachment case.
The draft resolution cited the alleged failure of the Senate to immediately act on the Articles of Impeachment which were transmitted to the chamber by the House of Representatives on February 5.
The presentation of the Articles of Impeachment was originally scheduled last June 2 but Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero moved it to June 11, the last day of session of the 19th Congress.
According to Escudero, the Senate can only convene as an impeachment court after the presentation of the charges against Duterte.
好色先生TV has sought dela Rosa’s side on Monsod’s remark but he has yet to respond as of this posting./apl
(NOTE: The English translations in the article were AI-generated.)
