Senate, not SC or ‘majority opinion’ to decide on VP Sara’s fate

SENATE President Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero continues to maintain that it would be the Senate, acting as the Impeachment Court, which would decide on the fate of Vice President Sara Duterte as he also continues to resist calls for the start of the trial and for the conviction of the Vice President based on “majority opinion” despite this being “against the law.”

Briefing Senate reporters earlier this month, Escudero that “it will be the decision of the Senate, in a plenary or as an impeachment court, that will prevail over the Supreme Court ruling on matters relating to the impeachment trial.”

He noted that although it is the “general rule” for Congress to respect the rulings of the Supreme Court, in the end, impeaching the Vice President “will be decided upon by the Senate.”

“The Senate, as the impeachment court, will still decide on that, or the Senate in plenary will decide on that matter. If you ask me, as a general rule, the Senate should respect and honor any decision of the Supreme Court. But in the end, that will be decided by the Senate,” he said.

The Senate chief maintained that the impeachment trial of the Vice President cannot proceed during the congressional recess, despite calls from some quarters to do otherwise.

“It’s not about clamor or pressure or raising voices. What the law says is what the law says unless the Supreme Court tells us otherwise in the mandamus petition that is currently pending.

“What the law says and what the Constitution and the Senate currently state as the sole trial of impeachment will prevail, and not just what the majority wants, even if it is against the law,” Escudero explained in Filipino (Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau).