House appeals SC ruling on VP Sara impeachment

The House of Representatives has urged the Supreme Court (SC) to remain politically neutral as it asked the high tribunal to reverse its ruling striking down the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte.

- By DAPHNE GALVEZ

In a 70-page motion for reconsideration filed through the Office of the Solicitor General yesterday, the House said it was not asking the SC to "favor any one political result," but to allow Congress to perform the duties the Constitution asks of both its chambers—for the House to initiate an impeachment proceeding and for the Senate to try the case.

"The House asks this Honorable Court not to stand with a certain political faction or another, but to uphold the Constitution, which gives life to all the institutions of government, and with the people, who in turn, are the true sovereign and to whom all accountability, trust and power, are owed," the motion declared.

The House argued that the high tribunal's power of judicial review "cannot be used to modify clear and unambiguous provisions of the constitutionally vested powers of the Congress, needlessly burden constitutional mechanisms for upholding accountability of public officers and nullify legitimate actions which have been done in accordance with the existing legal framework.”

It added that judicial review cannot reach into the internal proceedings of either the House or the Senate, to dictate that which the Constitution entrusts to each chamber’s discretion.

The House contended that the fourth impeachment complaint against Duterte, filed by at least onethird of the House, did not violate the one-year bar rule since it first acted on it and transmitted it to the Senate, prompting the termination or archival of the first three complaints.

It also said Duterte’s due process was not violated since this right was to be accorded to the impeached official before the Senate trial proper, as provided by the Constitution.

The new rules that the SC imposed on impeachment proceedings, the House said, are new standards that the chamber of Congress could not be held to prior to their creation as “it would simply be unfair.”