MANILA, Philippines — The decision of the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, to remand the impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte to the House of Representatives as “constitutionally troubling,” “without legal basis,” and a “big treacherous act against the people,” according to groups and individuals who monitored the proceedings on Tuesday.
At the same time, some called on people to take to the streets and on social media to express their anger against the senators “for letting their cowardice get the better of them.”
Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano, who was among the original petitioners of the impeachment complaint, said the ruling of the senator-judges was “not only procedurally questionable but constitutionally troubling.”
“The Senate and the House are co-equal branches in our bicameral Congress. The House has already fulfilled its constitutional mandate by transmitting the verified impeachment complaint. The matter is now squarely within the Senate’s jurisdiction—to hear, try, and decide,” Alejano said in a statement.
“To send the complaint back is, in effect, passing the ball when it is no longer theirs to play. It undermines the integrity of the process and raises the dangerous precedent that a co-equal chamber can dictate or delay the work of another,” said Alejano as he urged the Senate to “rise to the occasion – not as protectors of political allies—but as defenders of the Constitution and of public accountability. The people deserve a fair and transparent impeachment trial, not a political maneuver to escape it.”
Former senator and Mamamayang Liberal (ML) party-list Rep.-elect Leila de Lima called the Senate the “Court of the Unusual.”
“We have just witnessed proceedings without boundaries, while the Constitution, the law, and the rules burn. By remanding the impeachment complaint to the House, the Senate simply made things opposite go along, without care for either constitutionality or propriety,” she said.
“Since the filing of the articles of impeachment last February, the Senate President [Francis Escudero] already discarded the Constitution, by refusing to understand the word ‘forthwith,’ now the Senate, as an impeachment court, has just lit the Constitution aflame. All the proceedings and motions taken in the so-called impeachment court are without legal basis,” she added.
Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV called on the people to push the Senate in continuing the impeachment trial to “hold Sara accountable for her crimes.”
“We also need to get involved in the upcoming street protests and raise our voices on social media. Let’s make our feelings known to the senators,” he said in Filipino.
The August Twenty One Movement (ATOM) also called the senator-judges’ decision as a “big treacherous” act against the people for allegedly “violating the constitution for several months, after a simple ‘forthwith’ became a record slowest forthwith in the history of this constitution. They betrayed the people’s trust by this single act of cowardice.”
In a statement on Tuesday night, Akbayan party-list president Rafaela David called the senator-judges’ 18-5 vote “an abandonment of their constitutional mandate.”
“It’s not like online shopping that they can simply return it to the chamber. This odious act of the upper chamber is an abandonment of their duties. Tonight, they disrespected their oaths and the constitution,” she said.
“At a time when our people deserve nothing short of decisive action and courageous leadership from our senators, their cowardice got the better of them,” David added.
She, Trillanes, and de Lima also welcomed the five senators who voted against the motion of Senators Bato dela Rosa and Alan Peter Cayetano, namely Senators Risa Hontiveros from Akbayan, Koko Pimentel, Grace Poe, Nancy Binay, and Win Gatchalian.
“Only five showed up to work at the Senate. Their outnumbered vote was the principled, correct, and Constitutional vote. In the next few days, they’ll know that the people are on their side,” David said.
Akbayan, who topped the recent party-list elections, called on Filipinos to mobilize against the Senate’s latest vote, warning them of legal challenges to its dismissal.
“Those senators seem to have forgotten that the 1987 Constitution was born out of the people’s outrage over government impunity and the total disregard of the rule of law. Are they not scared of the power of the people?” David warned.
“Those who voted to remand the impeachment are a clear threat to our people and to our democratic foundations. Tonight, impunity won. Tomorrow and in the coming days, we take it out to the streets and reclaim what’s ours,” she added.
