SC junks petitions vs lower impeach vote to convict

MANILA, Philippines —  The Supreme Court has junked the three petitions challenging the ruling of the Senate impeachment court that allowed a lower number of votes to convict Vice President Sara Duterte. 

The Supreme Court dismissed the three separate petitions filed by former executive secretary Vic Rodriguez, lawyer Ernesto Francisco Jr. and disbarred lawyer Berteni Causing, according to the SC’s press briefer issued yesterday. 

Their petitions were shelved due to “lack of standing and prematurity,” the SC noted.

The impeachment court welcomed the dismissal of the petitions, declaring that it rendered the trial “constitutionally bulletproof.” 

“By junking these challenges, the highest court has drawn a definitive firewall around the independence of the Senate as an impeachment court, confirming that its proceedings cannot be held hostage by premature judicial meddling or collateral litigation,” impeachment court spokesman Reginald Tongol said.  

Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian said the SC’s refusal to issue a temporary restraining order and status quo ante order validates the chamber’s actions allowing a variable vote denominator to convict. 

“It means that what the impeachment court is doing is within its bounds and within its constitutional allowance,” Gatchalian said.

The House prosecution also welcomed the SC ruling. 

“It allows the trial to proceed without delay and keeps the focus where it belongs – on the evidence already before the Senate impeachment court,” panel spokesman Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong said.

House prosecutor Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon said the SC ruling would allow the impeachment proceedings to continue without further distraction.  

The two-thirds threshold would hinge on the number of senator-judges actually present during the impeachment trial, which now stands at 20 from the regular 24 due to various reasons. This would make the new threshold to convict respondent at 14.

At present, Sens. Jinggoy Estrada and Rodante Marcoleta are detained due to their plunder and graft cases while Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, who is subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, remains at large. Sen. Loren Legarda has been overseas and on medical leave since August.

Last week, the impeachment court ruled the constitutional provision requiring “two-thirds of all members of the Senate” to convict impeachable officials excluded in particular senators who are detained and suspended, in hiding or on sick leave.

Bank records

The House prosecution panel may begin presenting the subpoenaed bank records of Vice President Duterte today as the Senate impeachment court shifts to full-day hearings on her alleged unexplained wealth. 

House prosecution spokesman Ace Barbers said they are ready to go deeper into the financial evidence under Article II of the Vice President’s impeachment trial.

“This will be a fruitful week because we might start presenting the bank records today and tomorrow,” he said. 

Prosecutors intend to compare Duterte’s declared wealth and lawful sources of income with financial transactions reflected in records obtained from banks and other institutions. 

The impeachment court earlier authorized subpoenas for peso-denominated bank records involving Duterte, her husband Manases Carpio and several entities after finding the requested documents prima facie relevant and material to Article II. 

The prosecution said more than 1,800 bank, insurance and other financial documents have since been subjected to marking and processing ahead of their presentation in court. 

The panel has offered to enter into stipulations with the defense on the subpoenaed bank records in an effort to dispense with as many as 20 bank representatives who would otherwise have to testify to authenticate the documents. 

Barbers said the impeachment court has allotted longer hearing hours this week to accelerate the presentation of evidence. 

“Yes, full day, from 10 a.m. Thursday with no time limit. It will be the same on Friday,” he said.

Dangerous precedent

Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte’s claim that he was not aware he was transacting with a firm connected to his sister, the Vice President, sets a “dangerous” precedent for other local executives, Malacañang said yesterday. 

Palace press officer Claire Castro said the doctrine established by the ruling on Arias v Sandiganbayan may be invoked but not frequently, to cover up for one’s weakness or the anomalies of an ally or a sibling. 
The SC said the Arias doctrine states that all heads of offices have to rely to a reasonable extent on their subordinates and on the good faith of those who prepare bids, purchase supplies or enter into negotiations.

There has to be some added reason why the head of office should examine each of the documents he is supposed to sign, the high court said. 

“We are just basing it on what we heard and what he (Sebastian) knows and what he mentioned in the hearing yesterday (Sept. 29), on how long he has been a mayor and how come he does not look at the contracts he is signing,” Castro said. 

“It will be dangerous if used by other mayors to claim that they do not know that they are transacting with a sibling,” she added.

Thrown under the bus?

Castro clarified that she is not passing judgment on the mayor, who claimed during his testimony as a hostile witness on Tuesday that he was not aware of the Vice President’s connection to GenCorp Industries Inc. 

The Davao City government awarded 19 contracts to GenCorp.  

“He (Sebastian) showed that he did not know anything and it seemed that he did not care. But when Sen. (Panfilo) Lacson mentioned the Arias v Sandiganbayan, it seemed that he defended himself as a mayor,” Castro said.  

“He (Sebastian) lifted himself as a mayor, but in a way, he threw his sister under the bus when he said that had he known that (she) had interest in GenCorp, he would not have allowed it. But this is not a judgment. We are just basing it on what he heard from his narrative. But still, again, we should not judge Mayor Baste Duterte based on his own statements.” –  Alexis Romero, Neil Jayson Servallos