Former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban: Active participation crucial for senator judges in VP trial

Senator-judges must personally engage with the evidence in an impeachment trial before exercising the power to decide an official’s fate, retired chief justice Artemio Panganiban told the Senate impeachment court Wednesday.

Panganiban said the constitutional duty of senator-judges requires more than simply being counted as members of the chamber, stressing that “active participation and independent evaluation of the evidence are essential” to meaningful adjudication.

He said determining truth entails studying documents, hearing witnesses, and observing their demeanor on the stand – including their body language, tone of voice, and spontaneity in answering questions.

Fairness, meanwhile, requires giving both sides the opportunity to present and explain their case before judgment is rendered.

“Neither can such duty be performed in the shadows of absence, nor from legal impediments,” Panganiban said.

He cited senators who may be abroad, in hiding, legally detained, sick or hospitalized, and therefore unable to personally follow the presentation of evidence.

Panganiban illustrated the point by contrasting senator-judges attending the proceedings with those who might be “looking at the pyramids along the Nile,” shopping in Paris, or riding gondolas in Venice while the trial continues in Manila.

His position bears directly on Senator-Judge Erwin Tulfo’s appeal of presiding officer Francis “Chiz” Escudero’s ruling that 16 votes, or two-thirds of the full 24-member Senate, are necessary to convict Vice President Sara Duterte.

Tulfo has asked the court to clarify whether senator-judges unable to participate in the final vote should remain part of the base used to compute the constitutional two-thirds requirement.

The issue has become consequential because some senator-judges are currently unable to regularly attend the proceedings for various reasons, including detention, medical leave, and being in hiding.

Panganiban, however, approached the dispute from the responsibility of the individual senator-judge rather than mathematics alone.

He said senator-judges are not ordinary magistrates but elected representatives tasked to decide impeachment cases according to the “common sense of the people,” guided principally by truth and fairness.

-Philippine News Agency