'Recent moves cloud Senate's commitment to proceed'

Recent events in the Senate related to the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte has led to the "unpredictability" of members of the 19th Congress and resulted in a game of "blindsiding," Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III admitted yesterday.

- By NEIL JAYSON SERVALLOS

Pimentel voiced his deep concern over the circulating draft resolution to summarily dismiss the impeachment case without trial and the changing timelines of the impeachment.

"That's why we are suddenly fearful of our colleagues making surprise moves, because there should be no surprises here... why is that? Did they just forget the convening of the court? Or maybe they did not have a plan at all," he told dzMM TeleRadyo yesterday.

Pimentel cited the original plan to read the Articles of Impeachment on June 2 and convene the impeachment court by June 3.

Senate President Francis Escudero, who is under fire for allegedly derailing the impeachment process, pushed the schedule to June 11 - but with no explicit mention of the court's convening, a detail Pimentel found suspicious.

Even though Escudero has assured Pimentel that the reading of the Articles of Impeachment and the convening of the Senate as an impeachment court would take place on June 11, he said he was not reassured.

"He even used words like 'if ever, if ever,' plus 'the plenary is supreme.' Those words make me worried," he said.