Former Senate President Franklin Drilon said that although the Constitution does not require that a senator be a lawyer to preside over an impeachment trial, a senator with a legal background will certainly be “better equipped” to lead impeachment proceedings.
“Certainly it is an advantage, but being a non-lawyer will not disqualify you from presiding over the impeachment court because that is an obligation and a duty imposed by the Constitution regardless of your profession,” Drilon said in a television interview upon being asked whether it would be preferable for the impeachment court to be led by a lawyer.
“Of course, being a lawyer would make you better equipped to rule immediately on any issue on the floor, as we have seen in the past. But it doesn’t mean that you cannot rule already. You can always ask, I will rule this later in the day, or next week, or tomorrow. There is nothing that would prevent you from doing that,” he added.
A lawyer who placed third in the 1969 Bar Exams, Drilon is one of the seven individuals to have participated as senator-judges in the impeachment trials of both former president Joseph Estrada and former Supreme Court justice Renato Corona.
The other six are the late senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, former Senate president and now Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile, former senator Gringo Honasan, Sen. Loren Legarda, former senator Serge Osmeña, and incoming Sen. Tito Sotto III.
Under the 1987 Constitution, the Senate President presides over an impeachment court—except in cases involving the President, where the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides.
