She has turned to the only body that can legally stop her impeachment trial by the Philippine Senate.
Vice-president Sara Duterte-Carpio pleaded with the Supreme Court (SC) last week to order the Senate to desist from acting as an impeachment court.
This, after the House of Representatives voted to remove her from office due to her threat to have the President, the first lady, and the Speaker assassinated, aside from her inability to explain how she spent hundreds of millions of pesos in confidential funds.
The VP was also charged with offering bribes to Education department officials during her time as Education secretary.
SC spokesperson Camille Sue Mae Ting confirmed that Duterte-Carpio had filed a petition for certiorari and prohibition last week.
A certiorari petition asks a court to review another body’s decision or review it to determine if grave abuse of discretion has been committed. If granted, it can overturn a decision.
Duterte-Carpio also asked the high tribunal to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) and/or writ of preliminary injunction, which would block an order from being implemented.
The House of Representatives impeached Duterte-Carpio last February 5, making her the first vice-president to suffer the fate; 240 of its members signed the petition, initially focusing on her alleged misuse of confidential funds.
The House had actually received four impeachment complaints from various parties, acting on the fourth which it found to be most complete.
After she was impeached, Duterte as well as her followers filed three separate petitions with the SC.
The Vice-president filed her petition on the same day that her family’s allies filed a similar petition with the high court. The lawyers – led by detained Pastor Apollo Quiboloy’s counsel, Israelito Torreon, and former Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board chairman Martin Delgra, told the Supreme Court that the articles of impeachment filed in the House allegedly suffered from several constitutional infirmities. Therefore, they were invalid, they argued.
Should the SC agree with the Vice-president, the impeachment trial will not be held.
If, on the other hand, the SC rejects her, then the Senate will have no choice but to proceed. The only question is when that impeachment trial will begin.
Legal analysts have argued that the Senate must immediately convene as an impeachment court since the Constitution states that it must do so “forthwith.”
This one word has caused confusion, with Senate President Chiz Escudero saying the upper chamber will constitute itself as an impeachment court only after the President delivers his State of the Nation Address on July 28.
But former Senate president and current minority leader Koko Pimentel – a bar topnotcher – said it was the Senate’s duty to begin VP Duterte’s trial immediately, arguing that the word forthwith means “without any delay” or “without interval of time.”
Former Presidential Commission on Good Government special counsel Catalino Generillo Jr. also filed a petition with the high tribunal, asking the SC to direct the Senate to “immediately” constitute itself into an impeachment court and commence with the Vice- president’s trial.
While the impeachment trial should be nothing more than a legal proceeding, the fact is that it will most likely be a political exercise. Senator-judges are expected to vote along political lines rather than on the merits of the case.
As such, the more allies VP Duterte-Carpio has in the Senate, the greater her chances of winning.
The composition of the Senate after the mid-term elections will therefore determine her fate.
The SC has required the Senate to comment on the Duterte petition within a non-extendable period of 10 days from receipt of notice, according to spokesperson Ting.
