Dismissal of challenges to voting rule builds a ‘firewall’ around impeachment court – Atty. Tongol

The Supreme Court’s dismissal of challenges to the Senate impeachment court’s voting rule has drawn a “definitive firewall” around the chamber’s independence in trying the case against Vice President Sara Duterte, the court’s spokesperson said Wednesday.

“By junking these challenges, the Highest Court has drawn a definitive firewall around the independence of the Senate as an Impeachment Court, confirming that its proceedings cannot be held hostage by premature judicial meddling or collateral litigation,” lawyer Regie Tongol said.

Tongol issued the statement after the Supreme Court en banc dismissed separate petitions filed by Victor Rodriguez, Berteni Cataluña Causing, and lawyer Ernesto Francisco Jr., questioning the impeachment court’s Sept. 23 ruling on the constitutional two-thirds voting threshold.

He said the petitions were dismissed on procedural grounds, specifically lack of standing and prematurity.

The dismissal on those grounds did not constitute a substantive Supreme Court determination of whether the Senate impeachment court’s interpretation of the two-thirds requirement is constitutionally correct.

Tongol, however, said the impeachment court views the action as leaving its Sept. 23 ruling intact and allowing the trial to proceed without disruption from the dismissed cases.

“The Impeachment Court’s September 23 ruling stands undisturbed and shall continue to perform its constitutional mandate to solely try and decide the impeachment case before it without unnecessary stalling or external distractions,” he said.

Under the Sept. 23 ruling, the constitutional two-thirds requirement will be computed based on senators who remain legally and factually capable of participating when judgment is rendered, instead of automatically fixing the number needed for conviction at 16 based on a 24-member Senate.

The impeachment court adopted the interpretation by a 13-1 vote, with six senator-judges not participating. The ruling also specified circumstances in which senators may be excluded from the denominator, including legal restraint, detention or suspension, physical or medical incapacity, or being beyond the Senate’s coercive processes.

Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian earlier stressed that the ruling did not change the constitutional requirement of a two-thirds vote but addressed which senators should form the voting base when some are unable to participate.

Before the petitions were resolved, Gatchalian said the impeachment trial would continue under the Sept. 23 rule unless the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order.

Tongol said the dismissal removes those challenges as obstacles to continuing the proceedings.

-Philippine News Agency