Sara Duterte impeachment: What can the Senate do during the break?
Credit to Author: Jean Mangaluz| Date: Fri, 7 Feb 2025 07:30:00 +0800
MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives has made history by impeaching Vice President Sara Duterte, but the timing of the move raises questions as the Senate, which will serve as the impeachment court, just went on break.
The Senate is set to resume plenary sessions on June 2, after the midterm elections in May.
Until then though, can the Senate act on the impeachment cases? Senate President Francis Escudero said that it could not be done in a way that is compliant with the law.
“Legally, it cannot be done. Again as I said, the impeachment court was not convened, the impeachment complaint was not referred to plenary for there to be a basis for impeachment court to be convened by the Senate sitting as a legislative body,” Escudero said at a press briefing on Thursday, February
If the Senate wanted to tackle the impeachment case during the break, they should have decided the matter in a plenary session.
The Senate closed its final session on February 5, the same day the House impeached Duterte. Escudero noted the insufficient time to assess the articles of impeachment, especially due to a pre-existing legislative agenda for that day.
This does not mean, however, that preparation for the impeachment cannot be done during the break.
According to Senate rules, the Senate President must organize and prepare the chamber for an impeachment trial. This includes reviewing Senate impeachment rules.
Any work that can be done before the pre-trial will be done during the break, Escudero said.
“We will fulfill the roles that can be done during the recess, which includes setting the senate rules of impeachment because it needs to be updated,” Escudero said in Filipino.
Some of this work includes assessing the 215 signatures of lawmakers in the House of Representatives.
While e-signatures are valid for resolutions and bills, impeachment complaints require verification under oath. The Senate secretary general will verify these signatures using various apps to ensure compliance with legal standards, Escudero explained.
Escudero said that even if some signatures are discounted due to being e-signatures, as long as the resolution retains at least one-third of the signatures, which is the bare minimum needed for the House to impeach an official.
The Senate, moreover, needs to review its rules again, Escudero said.
The rules, he said, have not been updated since the trial of former Chief Justice Renato Corona in 2011.
“I will be instructing the Senate Secretary, Senate Legal, in consultation with some experts in the legal field that we might as outsourced resource persons to draft amended rules, updating it with respect to the rules of court and answering some of the gaps discovered during the Corona trial,” Escudero said.
“Most of the officials at that time are still here and make the corresponding recommendations during the recess, send them to the members of the 19th Congress so they can study, evaluate it and recommend it to their own consultants so that we can act on it and vote on it when we resume,” he added.
New rules can already be drafted during the break, but Escudero reiterated that they cannot be approved until the Senate resumes session.
There have been suggestions that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. could call a special session during the break.
While this is constitutionally allowed, Escudero noted that special sessions are typically reserved for urgent legislative matters rather than impeachment proceedings. Should the president call for a special session however, Escudero said that the Senate will attend to it.
Marcos, meanwhile, said he would consider calling a special session if requested by senators. “If the senators ask for it, yes,” Marcos said at a press briefing.
Marcos said that if the Senate President (in this case, Escudero) would call him and ask for a special session, he would grant it. This effectively put the impeachment proceedings in the Senate in Escudero’s ballpark.
Escudero acknowledged that if Marcos called a special session, it would allow discussions on impeachment but would still require approval from senators in plenary.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III earlier called Duterte’s impeachment an extraordinary situation. He suggested that rules could potentially be suspended with unanimous Senate approval.
Something similar was done during Corona trial, Escudero said.
His chamber, after all, will do its job either for those who want Duterte impeached, as well as for those who do not. Escudero insisted that the Senate would remain impartial and adhere to constitutional processes.
“This is purely a constitutional and legal process provided for in our Constitution on how to make certain high officials of the country accountable for their actions and or inactions, specifically, as alleged for, alleged culpable violation of the Constitution, bribery, treason, graft and corruption, other high crimes and betrayal of the public trust,” he said.