Ex-SC Chief Justice Panganiban: Absent senator-judges should inhibit

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Retired Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban on Wednesday said senator-judges who have been continuously absent from Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial should voluntarily inhibit from voting.

He made the remark when he was asked, as one of four amici curiae (friends of the court), whether senator-judges who had taken their oaths but had been continuously absent from the proceedings should still be counted in determining the number of votes needed for conviction.

“So, if I were in their position, because they are not in a position to render a truthful and fair judgment, I would even voluntarily inhibit from voting,” Panganiban said.

“For me, it is a practical matter for the people. I will no longer cite cases from the SC. There are many, both for and against. But I appeal to your sense of right and wrong,” he added.

The Senate impeachment court tapped four retired Supreme Court justices as amici curiae to provide independent legal opinions on the disputed voting threshold for convicting Duterte, amid questions over whether the two-thirds threshold should be based on all 24 senators or only those participating in the impeachment trial.

Panganiban maintained that senator-judges who are not present during the proceedings cannot render a fair judgment and should therefore not be counted.

“Because you will be diminishing the effort and the voice of those who are here present, trying to find the truth and trying to be fair,” he said.

Four of the 24 senators have been unable to regularly attend the Duterte impeachment trial: Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Rodante Marcoleta, Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and Loren Legarda.

Estrada and Marcoleta are detained in connection with separate criminal cases. Estrada is facing a P573-million plunder case and a graft case, while Marcoleta is detained over a P75-million plunder case.

Dela Rosa has been absent from the Senate amid an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant related to the ICC's investigation into alleged crimes against humanity linked to former President Rodrigo Duterte's anti-drug campaign. He left the Senate premises on May 14 after authorities attempted to serve the warrant and has not appeared in public since.

Legarda, meanwhile, has been on medical leave abroad. She had been absent from the impeachment proceedings and was reported to have extended her medical leave through Sept. 2.

Marcoleta previously insisted that he retains his voting capacity as a senator-judge.— MCG, GMA News