President Marcos sees no issue with Senator Escudero presiding over VP impeachment trial

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he sees no problem with the possibility of Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero serving as presiding officer in the upcoming impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, brushing off criticisms tied to Escudero’s previous role in the stalled impeachment proceedings last year.

Marcos said the negative views about Escudero are merely opinions and should not be taken as a reflection of his capability to preside over the trial.

"Those are opinions. I don't think that reflects in any way on how he will do," Marcos said in an interview in Russia.

He also noted that the Senate had already adopted rules for impeachment proceedings that were authored by Escudero during last year’s handling of the complaint.

"As a matter of fact, the rules that were adopted by the Senate were the rules that Senator Chiz wrote during the last year's, when they were handling the last year's impeachment complaint," he added.

Marcos expressed confidence that Escudero’s ability to manage the proceedings is not in question.

"So, in terms of his ability to be able to run the trial, I don't think that's in doubt," Marcos further said.

The President also clarified that last year’s impeachment proceedings did not proceed due to a Supreme Court ruling, and not because of Escudero’s actions.

"If you remember, the reason that the impeachment trial last year came to stop was because of the Supreme Court decision. And that had nothing to do with Senator Chiz," Marcos said.

He added that he will respect whoever the Senate selects as presiding officer, provided the process is proper, legal, and constitutional.

"I will support whoever the Senate chooses. As long as the process that they undertook in making the choice is proper, is legal, is constitutional, then that's fine with me," Marcos said.

Marcos also expressed hope that the Senate’s new leadership would bring order to the chamber and reduce internal turmoil.

"I will definitely do whatever I can to world together with the legislature, the Senate in particular, to make sure that things go smoothly and that we move away from the chaos that we have been seeing in the Senate. And I hope the new reorganization will achieve that," Marcos said.

The Senate is set to formally elect a presiding officer for the impeachment trial on July 6. Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson earlier said the new majority bloc has agreed to tap Escudero for the role.

-Paraluman News