House not pulling back on Sara Duterte impeachment case 鈥� solon
Vice President Sara Duterte — Photo from Inday Sara Duterte/Facebook
MANILA, Philippines — Insinuations that the House of Representatives has pulled out the articles of are untrue, prosecution team member and San Juan Rep. Ysabel Zamora said on Friday.
Zamora in an online interview was asked about rumors over social media that it was the House, and not the Senate, which was keen on discontinuing the impeachment trial.
According to Zamora, they would not do that especially since 215 lawmakers filed and signed the verified impeachment complaint against Duterte last February 5 — with at least 25 more signifying support for it.
“That the Congress will withdraw the articles of impeachment? No, we never talked about that and we have no plans on withdrawing it. Remember the impeachment complaint was supported by more than two-thirds actually, if I’m not mistaken more than 200 congressmen,” the lawmaker said in Filipino.
“We have no plans of withdrawing that,” she added.
Zamora also noted that the 1987 Constitution does not provide mechanisms for the House to pull back the articles of impeachment once it has been transmitted to the Senate.
“What is stated under our laws, primarily the 1987 Constitution, is that if the articles have been transmitted to the Senate, trial will push through. So there’s no option for the Senators to dismiss it, there’s also no option for the House to withdraw it,” she said.
“Yes, I would think so,” she answered when asked if the House withdrawing the articles can be considered unconstitutional.
It is unclear where the rumors originated from, but suggestions that the House would pull back the articles came after the Senate was being criticized for not holding the impeachment trial immediately, contrary to the Constitution’s provisions.
Under Article XI, Section 3(4), a Senate trial “shall forthwith proceed” if the verified impeachment complaint, contained in a resolution, is filed and signed by one-third of all House members.
With 306 members in the House, any impeachment resolution would need 102 signatures — which means this requirement was attained after 215 lawmakers signed the fourth impeachment complaint.
Senate President Francis Escudero has been getting criticisms over the continued delay to the impeachment proceedings.
Initially, Escudero sent a letter to House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez inviting the House prosecution panel to present the articles before the Senate plenary on Monday, June 2 — while the impeachment proceedings will start supposedly by Tuesday, June 3.
However, last May 29, Escudero sent another letter to Romualdez informing that the reading of the articles will be rescheduled to June 11. This will be the Senate’s last session, before the 19th Congress closes its session.
But after Wednesday, concerns that the impeachment trial might not push through grew after draft Senate resolutions were floated. If the resolution is adopted by a majority of the senators, the impeachment raps will be dismissed due to the insufficiency of time to discuss the matter.
READ: Lacson: Draft reso to junk impeach bid vs Sara Duterte circulating
However, several lawyers and prosecution members like Zamora are pointing to Section 3(6) of the 1987 Constitution, which lays down rules on an impeachment.
Under the section, the Senate is given the “sole power to try and decide all cases of impeachment”, which several legal luminaries believe is an indication that trial must start before the Senate even decides to dismiss an impeachment case.
READ: Dismissing Sara Duterte’s impeachment thru Senate reso illegal – solons
Zamora said they would just continue their preparations, noting that Batangas 2nd District Rep. Gerville Luistro has been practicing the reading of the articles.
“Yes, we just continue our preparation. Like just yesterday, Congresswoman Jinky Luistro, she was preparing for the presentation before the senators,” Zamora noted.
Duterte’s impeachment was hinged on alleged misuse of confidential funds (CF) lodged in her offices, and threats to high-ranking officials including President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos, and House Speaker Romualdez.
The fourth complaint was a combination of the first three impeachment raps filed by different groups — which included findings of the House committee on good government and public accountability, which showed issues on the CF expenditures.
During the course of the committee hearings, lawmakers discovered weird names signing off acknowledgment receipts (ARs) for the confidential expenses made by Duterte’s offices.
ARs are submitted to the Commission on Audit to prove that funding for projects reached its intended beneficiaries, which in this case, are confidential informants.
Antipolo City 2nd District Rep. Romeo Acop noticed that one of the individuals who signed the ARs was named Mary Grace Piattos — a name similar to a restaurant and a potato chip brand.
Later on, Lanao del Sur 1st District Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong showed two ARs — one for the Office of the Vice President and another for the Department of Education — which were both received by a certain Kokoy Villamin. However, the signatures and handwriting used by the Villamin in the two documents differed.
Both names were also not found inside the Philippine Statistics Authority database./mr
