With preps underway, solon hopes VP impeachment trial will start soon
Ako Bicol Rep. Raul Angelo Bongalon. —Photo from Bangsamoro Transition Authority Parliament’s FB page.
MANILA, Philippines — While the Senate’s move to start preparing for the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte is a welcome development, Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Raul Angelo Bongalon hopes the hearing will start sooner than the leadership’s June target date.
In a press briefing on Thursday, Bongalon said that Senate President Francis Escudero’s move to assign tasks to officials in preparation for the impeachment proceedings could signal that the Senate was now tackling the matter with urgency.
“For the Senate sitting as an impeachment court, it’s a positive development in the sense that probably they have realized the urgency as well as the responsibility as enshrined in the Constitution, that as the Senate, who is the sole judge for the impeachment case filed against any impeachable officer,” said Bongalon, one of the lawmaker-prosecutors tapped by the House of Representatives.
“So with that development, I believe that there will be a possibility, a big possibility that trial will commence the soonest possible […] So, it’s a big development because they have been given the directive to address all the things that they need to do, especially in relation to this impending impeachment proceeding,” he added.
However, Bongalon still hopes that the trial starts sooner than Escudero’s prediction that the trial would start by July 2025 and end by October 2025.
Article continues after this advertisementREAD: Senate can wrap up Sara Duterte impeachment trial in 3 months – Escudero
Article continues after this advertisement“Well, hopefully, this changes, considering that there’s already a directive asking for the organization of the administrative support to the Senate sitting as an impeachment court, hopefully it changes. Because given that the provision of the Constitution that the trial shall forthwith proceed, so probably there will be a change of mind with respect to the decision,” he noted.
“Anyway, we still have all the time, even before the 19th Congress ends, I guess that remaining months are sufficient to finish the trial. So it was mentioned by him (Escudero), that in two to three months, I guess, they can finish this impeachment trial, so before June 30 of 2025, I guess trial will already, it’s already concluded,” he added.
On Wednesday, Escudero gave the following offices and officials respective duties for the impeachment proceedings:
- Senate secretary: clerk of court while the Senate is an impeachment court, responsible for non-judicial functions including recording and reporting of proceedings, maintaining and preserving court records, and preparing and serving notices, among others.
- Senate legal counsel: deputy clerk of court, responsible for drafting the preparation of subpoenas, writs, summons, orders, resolutions, decisions, and other legal instruments, among others
- deputy secretary: deputy clerk of court, responsible for the transcripts and journals of the trial; forms of oath and custody and maintenance of the Oath Book following the Rules of Procedures on Impeachment Trials, among others
- Senate sergeant-at-arms, responsible for the service of summons, subpoenas, and other legal processes, along with implementing and maintaining security arrangements for the presiding officer, senator-judges, prosecution and defense panels, witnesses, and guests
READ: Escudero readies ‘administrative support’ to Senate for VP’s impeachment
While Escudero remains adamant that the trial will start by the 20th Congress, observers — including other House lawmakers and members of the prosecution team — see this as an important point for setting in motion the impeachment process.
House committee on good government and public accountability chairperson and Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua said that the Senate’s latest moves affirms their “commitment to upholding accountability at the highest levels of government.”
“The House of Representatives, in transmitting the Articles of Impeachment, has fulfilled its constitutional mandate. Now, it is up to the Senate to conduct a fair and impartial trial to determine whether Vice President Duterte should be removed from office,” said Chua, who is also a prosecutor like Bongalon.
“The Senate must now proceed in accordance with its impeachment rules. This means the Vice President will have the opportunity to present her defense, and we in the prosecution panel will present our case backed by evidence and witnesses,” he added.
Duterte was impeached by the House last February 5 after 215 lawmakers filed and verified a fourth impeachment complaint, hinged on several issues such as the alleged misuse of confidential funds lodged within her offices, threats to ranking officials including President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and conduct unbecoming of a Vice President.
The articles of impeachment were immediately transmitted to the Senate, as the 1987 Constitution requires a trial to start forthwith if at least one-third of all House members — in this case, 102 out of 306 — have signed and endorsed the petition.
READ: House impeaches VP Sara Duterte, fast-tracking transmittal to Senate
However, the trial has yet to start as the articles of impeachment were not forwarded to the Senate plenary before session ended on February 5 — which means that Congress would have to reconvene first after the election season, or through a special session to discuss the matter.
There are also conflicting opinions regarding whether it is proper for the current Senate to start the trial when the 2025 midterms elections would surely change the composition in the legislative chamber.
Former Sen. Panfilo Lacson believes, however, that there there would be no issue if the impeachment trial would start with the 19th Congress and cross over to the 20th Congress, based on the same principle used by the judiciary — where jurisdiction of a court division does not change despite the resignation or retirement of a sitting justice.
