Motion to dismiss the impeachment

Since under the law, the Senate acts as an impeachment court, it follows that any interested party may file a motion to dismiss the articles of impeachment based on legal grounds.

- Atty. Josephus B. Jimenez

That is the universal rule in all courts of justice. It is a component of due process under Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution, that a respondent may question the charge against him or her.

This motion to dismiss, however, cannot be filed, in a disguised form of a resolution, by Senator Bato de la Rosa, of all people, because he is a sitting senator-judge and as such, he should remain impartial, or, at the very least, appear to be impartial. I think, with due respect, our honorable senators should start learning to imbibe the Senatorial Code of Ethics. Bong Go behaves more appropriately by remaining mum on Bato's unabashed resolution.

It is, however, the right of the impeached vice president's panel to file such a motion, and this should be a prejudicial issue that must be resolved before even proceeding to trial. The first ground is that there is a primordial jurisdictional issue which is the fact that the incoming Congress cannot legally assume jurisdiction over an unfinished impeachment case which the outgoing Congress was not able to resolve due to the foot-dragging schemes of the Senate president and inaction by the outgoing Senate.