OSG counters Go, Padilla challenge to Senate impeach vote: No grave abuse

MANILA, Philippines—The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) asserted that the Senate impeachment court acted within the bounds of the Constitution in lowering the number of votes required to convict or acquit Vice President Sara Duterte.

The OSG said this in asking the Supreme Court to dismiss the petition for certiorari and prohibition filed by Senators Bong Go and Robin Padilla, which challenged the Senate’s revised voting rule. 

In its comment dated Nov 3, the government lawyers said that the Senate decided on the matter in adherence to the rules, and “well within its discretion and authority as the body with the sole power to try and decide all impeachment cases.”

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“Only in the clearest and most egregious cases of abuse may this honorable court step in and strike down with judicial review the acts of its co-equal branches, especially on political questions solely entrusted to them,” read part of the 42-page comment. 

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“Anything less amounts to an interference in the exercise of powers exclusively vested in the Senate Impeachment Court which the Constitution prohibits,” it added.

The petition by the two lawmakers was filed on Sept. 29, a day before the high tribunal dismissed three other petitions on the same issue.

Sitting en banc, the high court unanimously denied the petitions separately filed by former Executive Secretary Victor Rodriguez, constitutional lawyer Ernesto Francisco Jr. and disbarred lawyer Berteni Causing on procedural grounds, including lack of standing and prematurity.

The petitions, including the one by Go and Padilla, challenged the Sept. 23 ruling, which interpreted the constitutional requirement of a two-thirds vote of “all the members of the Senate” to mean senators legally and factually capable of voting for the conviction or acquittal of Duterte.

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With a 13-1 vote, the Senate impeachment court ruled that only 14 votes are needed if only 20 out of the total 24 senators are able to participate in the proceedings.

Three senators have been unable to participate in the trial since it began on July 6.

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They are Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who has yet to reappear in the Senate after an International Criminal Court arrest warrant was made public, and Rodante Marcoleta and Jinggoy Estrada, who are detained over separate nonbailable plunder charges.

Loren Legarda, who is on extended medical leave, attended a few sessions before leaving the country on Aug. 2.

Six other senator-judges, all members of the minority bloc, did not participate in the Sept. 23 vote.

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The impeachment of Duterte is set to resume on Nov. 9, with the presentation of evidence by the defense. /apl