黑料社

MANILA, Philippines 鈥� The Senate Impeachment Court has the power to bar Vice President Sara Duterte from holding public office even if she eventually steps down from her post before or during the trial, according to a lawmaker.

1-Rider party-list Rep. Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez pointed out that the impeachment has two purposes 鈥� to remove from office and to impose a penalty of 鈥減erpetual disqualification of holding a public office.鈥�

鈥淚 believe resignation, while it might avoid the first penalty, the second penalty is still there. And I don鈥檛 think you should take away the power from the Senate impeachment court to impose that second penalty just by simple resignation,鈥� Gutierrez, a member of the 11-member prosecution team handling Duterte鈥檚 impeachment case, said in a press conference on Monday.

He clarified, however, that the House prosecution team would leave the decision up to the Senate Impeachment Court if Duterte chose to resign.

鈥淭he preparation continues. So we are still anticipating even with the resignation, that would depend on the timeline, but we would still prepare for it,鈥� Gutierrez said.

鈥淚f there is a resignation but the impeachment court says tuloy po (to proceed), then we will be prepared. If the resignation happens during the trial, we will be prepared,鈥� he added.

On February 5, the lower chamber confirmed that 215 lawmakers signed the fourth impeachment complaint against Duterte.

Senate President Francis Escudero said, however, that holding an impeachment trial 鈥渓egally cannot be done,鈥� as the complaint was not referred to the plenary to establish a basis for convening the impeachment court by the Senate, which had been serving as a legislative body.

In a press conference on February 6, Escudero explained that for an impeachment court to be convened, there has to be an ongoing session in the chamber. He noted that this would allow impeachment judges to take their oath.

He said this would happen on June 2 once the session resumes after this year鈥檚 midterm elections.