Sotto draws Escudero’s ire for expressing support for Cha-cha

National

SENATE President Francis Escudero took to social media to blast Minority Leader Vicente Sotto III for supporting Charter change (Cha-cha) following the decision of the Supreme Court (SC) to dismiss the impeachment case of Vice President Sara Duterte.

Escudero posted on X (formerly Twitter) over the weekend accusing Sotto of favoring the House of Representatives and Speaker Martin Romualdez.

“Kinampihan na nga po ninyo ang impeachment ng HOR at ni Speaker Martin maski sabi ng SC, unconstitutional… Ngayon naman po kinakampihan na din niyo ang Cha-cha ng HOR at ni Speaker Romualdez?” Escudero said in his post, concluding his statement with a hashtag: the Senate is not your playground.

Escudero’s statement came after Sotto expressed his support in convening a constituent assembly to amend the 1987 Constitution.

In a report by Philstar, Sotto stated that the SC’s July 25 decision, which he said made impeaching an impeachable officer “impossible.”

Sotto explained that although at first he opposed Cha-cha, he now favors it to address what he described as disruptions to the Constitution's impeachment requirements, especially if the SC rejects the House's campaign to reverse the decision.

“The Constitution suddenly became messy as far as impeachment is concerned. How do we fix that? Frankly, at first I didn’t want Cha-cha, but now I’m OK with it. I’m willing to agree to a constituent assembly,” Sotto said.

Aside from revising the SC’s “broad powers” over impeachment proceedings, Sotto also favored amending the economic provisions of the Constitution – an advocacy previously proposed by the allies of President Marcos in the House to lighten restrictions on foreign investments.

“If ever, first I would allow what they call the economic provisions. Let’s amend those. After that, we should also change what they call the SC’s broad powers like this. That can’t be the case. It needs to be clearly defined,” he said.

Responding to Escudero's statement, Sotto clarified that his support to amend the Constitution depends on whether the SC will correct what he sees as flaws in its new impeachment guidelines.

“What I said was, if the SC ruling stands as is and the Constitution is amended by merely a SC decision, then I will consider supporting a constituent assembly or a constitutional convention to rewrite Article XI of the Constitution because the requirements written in the SC decision is impossible to meet,” Sotto explained.

“Wala akong kinakampihan tulad nila. Ang kinakampihan ko ay ang Constitution,” he added.

Sotto noted that the SC’s seven new due process requirements effectively amend the Constitution.

He stressed that allowing an impeached official to answer before the approval of the House on the Articles of Impeachment could be abused if the official refused to attend the proceedings.

He also criticized the requirement for all the House members to sign affidavits affirming they have read and understood the articles, arguing that some lawmakers might intentionally refuse, thereby obstructing the impeachment process.

Efforts to amend the Constitution under the Marcos administration started in January 2024 through the People's Initiative for Reform, Modernization, and Action, which faced accusations of signature buying.

While the House pushed for amendments, primarily focusing on economic provisions, the Senate delayed submitting its version of Resolution of Both Houses 6 (RBH6).

RBH6 was meant to counter the people's initiative, which Senate leaders believed was an action by the House to force both chambers to vote jointly on constitutional changes.

Senators of the 19th Congress disagreed with the joint voting, stressing that the Senate's 24 votes would be overpowered with ease by the House's over 300 votes. The standoff persuaded President Marcos to intervene, ordering both chambers to allow the Senate to spearhead the Cha-cha campaign.(Marlon Ado Jr., USC Comm Intern)