MANILA, Philippines — So far as the Home of Representatives is worried, the online impact of the 19 senators’ determination to “archive” the impeachment criticism in opposition to Vice President Sara Duterte is sort of synonymous with burying the useless.
“To archive is, in impact, to bury the Articles of Impeachment,” Speaker Martin Romualdez mentioned yesterday in an announcement, which additionally famous the Senate did this “regardless of the case nonetheless pending earlier than the Supreme Courtroom (SC).”
He additionally reminded their Senate counterparts that the SC ruling dismissing the Duterte impeachment is “not closing,” which suggests a reversal should be attainable.
“The submitting of the criticism was not rushed. What was rushed – remarkably – was its burial,” Romualdez mentioned.
Rep. Benny Abante of the Home committee on human rights warned that the Senate’s determination “sends a harmful message on accountability.”
“The impeachment course of just isn’t about 2028. It’s about whether or not public funds had been used throughout a time when no authorized mandate had but been conferred to an workplace. That could be a clear query of constitutional integrity – not political ambition,” Abante mentioned.
Home committee on good authorities and public accountability chairman Rep. Joel Chua, warned that the Home management, together with impeachment prosecutors, “shall not be deterred in our quest for accountability.”
Accountability
Sen. Risa Hontiveros insisted yesterday that pushing for the resumption of Duterte’s impeachment trial regardless of the SC determination is a matter of accountability, not politics.
Hontiveros made it clear that the impeachment course of is about holding the second-highest official within the land accountable for the intense fees leveled in opposition to her.
“The Articles of Impeachment allege that the Vice President didn’t perform her duties with regards to accounting for public funds, following the code of conduct of public officers and respecting human rights,” she advised “Storycon” over One Information on Thursday.
“I’ll all the time return to the matter of accountability that goes past electoral issues,” she careworn.
Hontiveros is just one of 4 senators who voted in opposition to archiving the Articles of Impeachment, arguing that the higher chamber ought to train prudence by ready for the SC’s closing determination on the matter.
She acknowledged that it may be “higher” for the Senate to archive the Articles of Impeachment relatively than dismiss them outright, as Sen. Rodante Marcoleta initially instructed in his movement earlier than the Senate management altered the wording.
She additionally lamented the insinuations of Senate President Francis Escudero that some ex-justices who opposed the SC’s ruling had been attempting to behave because the “Supremest Courtroom.”
“That is deeper, that is larger than mere partisan politics,” Hontiveros mentioned. “It’s nonetheless about accountability.”
‘Cowardly’
The Senate’s determination is a “cowardly method to kill impeachment and shield Duterte” the Makabayan bloc and different progressive congressmen mentioned yesterday.
“This so-called archiving is nothing however a cowardly retreat by a Senate too scared to face the reality,” former Gabriela ladies’s occasion consultant and one of many endorsers of the impeachment criticism within the nineteenth Congress mentioned.
“The Senate selected to defend Duterte from scrutiny. That’s not public service, that’s self-preservation,” Arlene Brosas mentioned in an announcement.
Gabriela Girls’s Social gathering careworn that the choice reeks of political bias and concern—favoring the Duterte camp whereas denying the general public their proper to demand solutions.
Alliance of Involved Lecturers Rep. Antonio Tinio and Kabataan Rep. Renee Louise Co mentioned the Senate solely needs to spare itself from the optics of overtly junking the case.
“By shelving the case, the Senate proves it’s extra afraid of the Duterte camp than Filipino taxpayers demanding solutions,” Tinio mentioned.
“It’s apparent who they’re actually serving,” Co mentioned.
Akbayan party-list Rep. Chel Diokno mentioned the Senate ought to have waited for the finality of the SC ruling on the movement for reconsideration filed by the Home.
“As a substitute, the Senate hammered one other nail on the coffin of accountability, no matter they might name it, to dismiss, archive, or from the phrase of the Senator, kill the Articles of Impeachment,” Diokno mentioned in an announcement.
Former Bayan Muna congressman Neri Colmenares mentioned the choice is a betrayal of the Filipino individuals’s demand for accountability and a harmful precedent that undermines the Structure.
“The Senate turned their again on their constitutional responsibility,” Colmenares mentioned.
In the meantime, Tindig Pilipinas coalition co-convenor Kiko Aquino Dee flashed a thumbs-down signal simply as Marcoleta completed explaining why he voted “sure” to archiving the Articles of Impeachment. Dee was finally requested to go away the chamber.
Minutes later, Akbayan party-list president Rafaela David and different progressive leaders rose to provide the thumbs down as properly whereas Sen. Imee Marcos was explaining her “sure” vote. They had been escorted out by Senate staffers.
Over 300 members of Bayan and different allied organizations protested alongside Elliptical Street in Quezon Metropolis in protest of the Senate’s determination.
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan secretary normal Raymond Palatino warned that the Senate vote will spark extra protests in opposition to what he described as a system that protects big-time thieves, mass murderers, traitors and corrupt authorities officers.
Catholic Bishops’ Convention of the Philippines govt secretary Fr. Jerome Secillano mentioned the general public ought to keep in mind this level in historical past once they vote for the presidency in 2028.
“Therefore, let the general public resolve her destiny come election,” he mentioned.
Enlighten SC
The Home prosecution panel is optimistic that the Movement for Reconsideration (MR) it filed will enlighten and persuade the SC to revise their ruling on the impeachment criticism filed in opposition to Duterte.
Antonio Audie Bucoy, Home prosecutors’ spokesman, in a press convention on Wednesday mentioned it is necessary that they had been in a position to point out the factual and authorized foundation for his or her MR and hope that the SC will finally reply to their plea.
“We consider that the justices are additionally human, who can commit errors. And what actually occurred is laid down on them, the factual, they are going to be enlightened. We don’t criticize by advantage of the movement for reconsideration,” Bucoy mentioned.
“We name the eye of the Supreme Courtroom. That’s fulfilling our responsibility as legal professionals, as residents. We acknowledge that there could also be errors. Now, if we will current the factual foundation and what are the authorized foundation, we hope that the Supreme Courtroom will reply,” he added.
Bucoy additionally clarified that the SC determination on the unconstitutionality of the impeachment criticism in opposition to Duterte, though instantly executory, just isn’t but closing.
“It isn’t but closing, though it was said within the determination, executory. It isn’t mentioned that this determination is closing, it can’t be revised, it can’t be reviewed. That’s the reason in our course of, a movement for reconsideration is allowed and that’s what we did,” Bucoy mentioned.
The Home submitted its MR on Aug. 5. — EJ Macababbad, Jose Rodel Clapano, Emmanuel Tupas, Bella Cariaso, Evelyn Macairan.
