If Sara Duterte manages to escape being tried as an impeached vice president, a not unlikely prospect, that can set off an ominous chain of consequences.
Saved from facing judicial judgment, she will not only continue in office but remain eligible to hold greater power despite a heavy cloud of suspicion shrouding her — in fact, she makes no secret of her desire be the next president, from 2028. For all that, the first liability will fall on Francis Escudero, for depriving us the people of our first chance to bring her to justice.
As president of the Senate, Escudero presumably has the strongest influence in the household. And he does not let any opportunity pass to let that be known, especially not these days.
As soon as Sara Duterte was impeached by the House and her case was sent, on the same day, to the senate for trial, Escudero declared that the trial could wait; that it was nothing important enough to be interrupting the congressional recess; that it could wait even months.
Which I don’t quite get. By its very nature, impeachment seems to me a matter of great urgency: it provides an emergency device for dealing with public officers who, because they hold ultimate power or are simply standing by to succeed to it, need to be charged and tried once justifiable reason is found that they have betrayed the public trust, precisely the case with Duterte. The impeachables are the president, the justices of the Supreme Court, the members of constitutional commissions, the ombudsman, and, yes, the vice president, who automatically steps up once the president becomes incapacitated.
The impeachment process is so clearly laid out in the Constitution I see no way for anyone literate enough to get lost in it. And, with someone like Adolf Azcuna, himself one of the framers of the Constitution and a former Supreme Court justice, providing an annotation in the face of all the current quibbling, Escudero definitely looks bad.
In Article XI, on Public Accountability, the Constitution provides that “the trial by the Senate shall forthwith proceed” upon a public officer’s impeachment by the House of Representatives. Forthwith is the operative word — in non-legalese, it translates to “right away,” “without any delay.”
By that provision, the start of the senate proceedings has been more than two weeks late. That has enabled Duterte’s camp to seize the advantage: it has been inundating cyberspace, the airwaves, and other media platforms with postings portraying her as a victim of persecution. Here is to save the facts from drowning in that flood of propaganda.
Duterte and her confidential staff were found to have taken hundreds of millions of pesos of the people’s money and covered up the malversation with crudely manufactured receipts in the name of fictitious beneficiaries. The anomaly became revealed at congressional hearings in which her staff was caught by the mouth. She herself refused to attend the hearings and answer questions, not unlike a suspect who runs and hide.
If the Senate had complied as promptly as the Constitution commands, Duterte would have been too busy preparing for her defense to be able to do anything else. And, once put on trial, she cannot but be present, itself a far more absorbing preoccupation, especially for someone like her, who requires superhuman effort to behave in the face of scrutiny — she couldn’t even stop herself making public threats to have the President and his wife and the Speaker, the President’s cousin, assassinated. She accuses the three of having conspired to set her up for the congressional inquiry.
Moreover, nothing offers a more credible platform for contention than an open trial, especially in a politically charged case. At an impeachment trial, not only are the proceedings subject to the rigors of prescribed procedure, they come under the glare of public attention, since they are broadcast live.
I don’t know that the issue impacts the May 12 midterms, in which all 316 House seats and half the senate’s 24 are contested. But it should, particularly for those standing for senatorial election. In fact, the vote should turn on the question of whether they favor holding the trial right now, not anytime later. Actually, only two senators have declared themselves in favor — Aquilino Pimentel III and Risa Hontiveros — and they are not even candidates.
As for Escudero, he continues to cavil about it, sarcastically. Betraying a sense of self-importance, he now says that, judging by the number of protest letters he got, there’s no clamor for it, obviously expecting to be taken at his count — all of three.
Well, little Francis, this is not about you; this is about a constitutional duty you and your Senate ought to perform in order for you, all of you, to deserve the public trust yourselves. – Rappler.com