Senate resolution seeks to continue Duterte impeachment trial

National

A RESOLUTION asking the Supreme Court (SC) to reconsider its decision dismissing the impeachment case of Vice President Sara Duterte is being proposed in the Senate.

Senators Francis Pangilinan and Bam Aquino were behind the resolution, Senator Miguel Zubiri disclosed.

“I respect the views of my colleagues who are pushing for the Senate resolution asking the Supreme Court to effectively reconsider its decision on the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte,” expressed Zubiri in a Philstar report.

Zubiri maintained his stand that the Senate should follow with the decision of the SC that found the impeachment complaint unconstitutional for violating the one-year bar rule against conducting more than one impeachment complaint.

“While legal opinions are welcome in a democratic setting, we must be careful not to overstep boundaries already settled by the Court,” Zubiri said.

“We do not serve the public well by insisting on reopening matters already resolved by the Constitution’s final arbiter. That sends the wrong signal to the people and weakens the institutions we are sworn to protect,” he added.

Zuburi stressed that the Senate cannot risk a constitutional crisis and set a dangerous example by defying the SC's decision through a resolution alone.

“Let’s not set a precedent that any group, Senado man yan o ibang organisasyon, can undermine the Supreme Court through mere resolutions. The answer to a constitutional ruling is not political maneuvering. It is obedience,” Zubiri said.

Senator Risa Hontiveros argued that her camp, together with Pangilinan and Aquino, would disseminate such a resolution in the hopes that the other Senators would support their cause.

The senators – widely recognized as allies of former Vice President Leni Robredo's “Pink” camp – opposed the SC's decision, as they urged the high court to honor “fairness principle” and “doctrine of operative fact” and allow a trial to push through under the recent definition of the one-year bar rule that was also set by the SC.(Marlon Ado Jr., USC Comm Intern)