MAMAMAYANG Liberal (ML) Party-list Rep. Leila de Lima regretted describing the Supreme Court (SC) decision to dismiss Vice President Sara Duterte's impeachment case as one-sided.

The former senator on Saturday afternoon, July 26, apologized to the High Court for her critical remark against the decision on the petition to dismiss filed by Duterte, Vice President, who raised the one-year bar rule on impeachment complaints.

"I regret and most humbly apologize to the [SC] for characterizing the impeachment decision as ex-parte," De Lima said in a report by Manila Bulletin.

"That portion of my statement saying the House was not given an opportunity to comment on the impeachment petitions was grossly ill-advised as it was based on patently wrong information," she added.

De Lima emphasized that it was not her intention to accuse the SC of failing to consider the side of the main respondent, which is the House of Representatives.

“It is plainly evident in the decision, which I was able to read only after the release of my statement yesterday, that the House's comments in the two impeachment petitions were indeed considered by the court," she explained.

"There is no excuse for this mistake and I bear full responsibility for the same," De Lima added.

It was last Friday whe De Lima lambasted the SC ruling, describing it as "not only unprecedented; it is procedurally questionable".

"Paano naglabas ng pinal na desisyon kung wala pang pormal na tugon ang respondent? (How was the final decision made without a formal reply from the respondent?). Even traffic violators are given more due process than what was accorded here," said.

"The decision is basically an ex-parte decision, a very prohibited action among judges when the rules require the parties to be given the opportunity to be heard first," De Lima argued.

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• #Leila De Lima
• #Supreme Court
• #Sara Duterte
• #Impeachment case
• #Mamamayang Pilipino