FORMER Executive Secretary Victor Rodriguez has petitioned the Supreme Court to declare illegal the Senate Impeachment Court’s new voting threshold in convicting an impeached official.
Rodriguez wrote in his petition that the Senate’s ruling has effectively rewritten the 1987 Constitution.
“The tribunal thereby created an entirely new constitutional denominator,” he said, because, according to him, the Senate may not unilaterally modify an express constitutional command through procedural or adjudicative rulings.
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Under this modified rule, which is a departure from presiding Judge Chiz Escudero’s 16-vote minimum, “two-thirds of all the Members of the Senate” under Article XI, Section 3(6) of the Constitution may proportionately be reduced using a smaller denominator made up only of senators who are “legally and factually capable of participating” at the time the vote for conviction or acquittal is made.
The new calculation thus disqualifies senators who are in some sort of legal disability.
Rodante Marcoleta and Jinggoy Estrada are detained or suspended from office. Bato Dela Rosa is in hiding, and has not been able to take is oath as impeachment judge.
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There might be some calculation in the timing of this ruling by the Senate impeachment court.
The motion for the new threshold was made way before an actual vote for conviction or acquittal of Vice President Sara Duterte.
This takes the sails from “premature” petitions such as the one filed by Rodriguez. There is no “actual case or controversy” cognizable by the Supreme Court at this time.
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The petition may be premature and speculative. A conviction vote of 16 is still possible despite the reduced number of senators who can meaningfully participate in the impeachment trial. Sixteen of 21 is not impossible. It is reachable.
Consequently, there is no “injury” that the Court may redress in the exercise of its certiorari jurisdiction.
VP Sara is yet to be injured. She has not been convicted by a vote that is less than 16. The Court may well ignore or dismiss the Rodriguez petition as well as other similar petitions taking issue with the voting threshold at this time.
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It is safe to assume that the senators voted in favor of the motion knowing full well the implications behind voting this early to reverse Escudero’s initial ruling.
Are they ready to convict? Is the motion a portent of things to come?
It is a basic Constitutional rule that the Senate is the sole judge of all impeachment proceedings. Will the Supreme Court interfere in the event that the impeachment court eventually convicts VP Sara with a vote that is less than 16?
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The Court can refuse to review such a judgment of conviction. Removal from office of an impeachable official may not be reversed by any other person or body.
Will the court employ restraint? A contrary position may disturb constitutional order with respect to impeachment proceedings which is the sole domain of the Senate.
Is the track therefore irreversibly and undeniably towards conviction?/PN
