Senate court takes break for budget deliberations

MANILA, Philippines — Senators will take a break from their duties as impeachment court judges this week so they can focus on deliberating the proposed budget and having it approved before the year ends.

Speaking to radio dzMM yesterday, Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian stressed the need for the Senate to go back to discussing the proposed P7.2-trillion national budget for 2027 after serving as an impeachment court.

Gatchalian said he expects the prosecution and defense to wrap up their examination of the last prosecution witness – forensic financial analyst and certified public accountant Alexander Cabrera – on Vice President Sara Duterte’s alleged unexplained and undeclared wealth during the next trial dates tomorrow and on Tuesday.

Dedicating the first half of October to the impeachment trial has helped the court expedite the proceedings and make a room for discussion of the national budget by the Senate starting Wednesday.

This week’s schedule was supposed to be dedicated to whole day impeachment trial dates, but Gatchalian said the tail-end of the week would be dedicated to the prosecution’s formal offer of evidence, which is not expected to take much time.

He said trial will resume after the Undas break or on Nov. 9, in time for the defense to present its counter-evidence on all three Articles of Impeachment.

“So I think it’s best to take a pause (from impeachment trial) so we can go back to the budget because we need to sponsor the budget when we return on Nov. 9, because there is a timetable for the budget. Before the end of the year, we have to have it approved. If not, then we’ll have to reenact. And it’s not good to reenact because our economy is not good,” he said.

“So we need to sponsor the budget so we can take it to the plenary. After the plenary, there is bicam. So by Wednesday, we will be holding budget hearings all the way to Nov. 9,” he said.

Trial would also have resumed by then to coincide with budget plenary debates.

Senators will have their hands full in December, their traditional schedule to meet with the House of Representatives for a bicameral conference committee so they could reconcile the conflicting provisions of the 2027 General Appropriations Bill, as well as comply with their target of rendering a fair verdict on Vice President Duterte before the end of the year.

Senator-judges are feeling the pressure of doing their best amid their grueling jobs of hearing the evidence as impeachment judges and studying the national budget proposal, Gatchalian said.

“Our senators and senator-judges are really under pressure because we need quality for their two tasks. We can’t sacrifice the budget for the impeachment and vice versa. We need quality work, quality debate for the impeachment and vice versa – quality debate, quality analysis. That’s the challenge,” he said.