A path to acquittal

The 1987 Constitution is not a suggestion. It is a binding document that gives legitimacy to every act of state power, including impeachment. If those charged with upholding it treat it like an inconvenience or a mere backdrop to political theater, then they betray not just their office but the very republic they swore to serve.

- By Michael Henry Yusingco

NOW MORE THAN EVER, civil society organizations (CSOs), journalists, and academics must revisit the last time impeachment was top of mind for every Filipino. They must review the transcripts of the impeachment trial of former Chief Justice Renato Corona. Scrutinize every word and fully understand the peculiarity of impeachment as a constitutional process. Specifically, they must internalize the inability of senators to manage the inherent interplay of politics and law in an impeachment trial. Certain incumbent senators openly displaying partisanship is unconscionable, but it is not unprecedented.

‘The impeachment process, by constitutional design, aims to hold those public officials occupying the loftiest and most insulated positions in government to account for grave abuses of power. Moreover, senators, who function as judges in the impeachment court, sit as representatives of the people with each one carrying the weight of a national constituency. The moment they take their seats as senator-judges, their fidelity must shift — firmly and unquestionably — to the 1987 Constitution and the duty it imposes upon them. This would entail suppressing their respective partisan interests.