House confident SC will let VP impeachment proceed

The House of Representatives is confident the Supreme Court (SC) will dismiss the petition questioning the impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte.

- By DELON PORCALLA

Manila 3rd district Rep. Joel Chua, one of the 11 House prosecutors, and Bicol Saro party-list Rep. Terry Ridon stressed at a news briefing that the House acted within the bounds of the Constitution and established jurisprudence when it transmitted the seven Articles of Impeachment to the Senate.

Chua and Ridon pointed out that applying the one-year ban rule on filing impeachment complaints based on referrals will only make the impeachment process prone to politicking, where parties will just file a complaint no matter how frivolous.

"This is not the first time that this happened. This happened during the time of deposed president Estrada. We have what we call in legal parlance, presumption of regularity or legality," Chua said.

He also warned against using the referral rule as a weapon to block valid impeachment efforts.