The time has come to put a stop to all this no-impeachment-trial nonsense and get back to the basics.
One of the lessons that are drummed into the minds of students in the Statutory Construction segment of the law course is that there is no need for interpretation or debate when provisions of the Constitution or ordinary laws are unambiguous and crystal-clear. A case in point is Section 4 of Article XI – the article on “Accountability of Public Officers” – of the Constitution.
Section 4 of Article XI provides that “the verified complaint or resolution of impeachment filed by at least one third of all members of the House shall constitute the Articles of Impeachment and trial by the Senate shall proceed forthwith.” The Articles of Impeachment, embodying seven charges against Vice-President Sara Duterte, were transmitted to the Senate by the House on February 5, 2025.
The language of the afore quoted Constitutional provision could not be clearer. Thus, in accordance with the principal rule of Statutory construction, it is not subject to interpretation or debate.
Yet, what are the Filipino people seeing and hearing?
They are seeing and hearing the partisans and supporters of Vice-President Duterte conducting themselves as though Section 4 of Article XI was ambiguous and needed interpretation. During the four-month interval following the receipt of the Articles of Impeachment by the Senate they have resorted to delaying tactics – including allowing the Senatorial candidates three months to do their campaigning – and spewing out specious legal arguments in support of the non-holding of an impeachment trial.
At the start of their effort, the pro-Sara Duterte camp had signaled that it intended to prevent the current Senate from being able to complete its impeachment-trial work so that they would be able to invoke the Constitutional prohibition against the twice-in-one-year impeachment of an erring public officers. Currently they are pursuing the argument that transitioning of an impeachment trial – the incoming 20th Congress Senate proceeding with the work done by the outgoing Senate – is not Constitutionally possible.
The grand vision of the pro-Sara Duterte forces is, and has from the start been, the non-holding of an impeachment trial. If there ever was any doubt about that, such doubt has been totally dispelled by the motions to dismiss the impeachment complaint files last week by pro-Duterte Senators.
The time has come to put a stop to all this no-impeachment-trial nonsense and get back to the basics. The basics are Section 4 of the Article XI of the Constitution and the need to hold the Vice-President accountable for the Constitutional offenses indicated in the Articles of Impeachment.
“Trial by the Senate shall proceed forthwith”—that is what the framers of the 1987 Constitutions required the Senate to do upon receipt of the verified Articles of Impeachment from the House of Representatives. The Constitutional Commissioners could simply have ordered the Senate to proceed with the holding of an impeachment trial; but they went further than that and required that the trial be held “forthwith”. Their inclusion of the word forthwith is a clear indication that they wanted an impeachment trial to be held immediately upon receipt of Articles of Impeachment. No ifs and buts and no attempts to water down the meaning and import of Section 4, Article XI,. And definitely no delays.
Should Vice-President Sara be allowed to not account for the P621 million worth of intelligence and confidential funds that the government entrusted to her in her capacities as Vice-President and Secretary of Education? The members of the Constitutional Commission didn’t think she should; that is why they put an article on “Accountability of Public Officers” in the 1987 Constitution. And very recently 90 percent of the individuals polled by a reputable survey institution said that they wanted Sara Duterte to answer the charges against her in an impeachment trial.
It’s time to put aside the delays, the prevarications and the specious reasonings. It’s time to go back to the basics.
Let Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial proceed forthwith.
(llagasjessa@yahoo.com)
