After months of waiting, the events of Tuesday, June 10, concerning the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte, as well as other cases of Duterte allies, happened in rapid succession. Senator Risa Hontiveros once called it “dribbling the ball for four months” when the Senate put the Vice President’s impeachment trial on hold from February to June. On the same evening, the senator-judges chose to throw the ball out of the impeachment court just after they convened that afternoon.
18 out of 12 senators voted to return the articles of impeachment back to the House of Representatives, a motion that Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano put forward, after a contentious back-and-forth between Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa and Senator Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel.
Only five voted against Cayetano’s motion: senators Grace Poe, Nancy Binay, Win Gatchalian, Pimentel, and Hontiveros.
Dela Rosa, an ally to the Dutertes, initially moved to dismiss the impeachment case entirely, citing its alleged unconstitutionality. But Pimentel opposed the motion, stating that Duterte or her counsel must raise their concerns with the case during the trial.
“In a court proceeding, since the judge should observe the cold neutrality of an impartial judge, ‘yong pagkakamali o pagkukulang alleged sa complaint, sa information, it should be the affected or aggrieved party which should raise that before the judges in a collegial body,” Pimentel said. He emphasized that the senator-judges must also practice impartiality.
During the proceedings, Hontiveros said that the senator-judges did not have to return the impeachment articles to the House. “The same purpose could have been achieved by merely asking the House prosecutors to file a compliance and clarify certain issues. Wala pong remand o return sa Konstitusyon. Ang obligasyon natin ay try and decide.”
University of the Philippines College of Law professor Paolo Tamase told Rappler that remanding the case back to the House of Representatives is “violating constitutional structure,” as the House and the Senate are constitutionally equal despite their different roles in the impeachment process.
According to the impeachment court’s decision, before the House sends the articles back to the Senate, it must certify the impeachment’s non-violation of the Constitution, and the House of the 20th Congress must decide whether to continue pursuing a trial.
Immediate Aftermath
On Wednesday, June 11, the House of Representatives deferred acceptance of the impeachment articles sent back by the Senate. In response to the impeachment court’s demands, the House adopted a new resolution certifying that the impeachment proceedings initiated in February fully complied with the Constitution, “including the circumstances on the filing of the first three impeachment complaints,” the resolution read.
In a press conference with the House prosecution team, Batangas Second District Representative Gerville Luistro said that the team is seeking clarification from the Senate regarding its decision to return the articles of impeachment.
Meanwhile, groups such as the Akbayan Party, Tindig Pilipinas, and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan marched to the Senate gates along J.W. Diokno Boulevard in Pasay City to protest the delays in Duterte’s impeachment trial.
Seeking Reconciliation
On May 19, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said he was open to reconciling with the Duterte camp. “Ayaw ko ng gulo. Gusto kong magkasundo sa lahat ng tao.” He also stated that he needed more allies and wanted to prioritize stability in the government.
Marcos has never claimed responsibility for the vice president’s impeachment, the arrest of her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte by the Philippine National Police and International Criminal Court (ICC), or the human trafficking charges against former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, who is also associated with the Philippine offshore gaming operation (POGO) firm Lucky South 99. However, Roque has continually claimed that he and others in the Duterte camp were being persecuted by the Marcos administration, which he used as a basis for his asylum application in the Netherlands.
While an arrest warrant is still out for Roque for the human trafficking charges, the House of Representatives has lifted the contempt order against him, no longer requiring him to appear before the House Quad Committee as it concluded its probe into POGOs on Monday, June 9.
Despite this, things have not eased for the Dutertes and their allies. On Monday, the ICC also decided to deny Rodrigo Duterte’s request to disqualify two judges from the tribunal’s Pre-Trial Chamber I, María del Socorro Flores Liera and Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou. The judges are expected to rule on jurisdictional issues as he and his counsel continue to contest the ICC’s jurisdiction over the case relating to the war on drugs and extrajudicial killings.
