VP answers summons: Complaint a scrap of paper

Beating the deadline, the defense team of Vice President Sara Duterte submitted late yesterday afternoon her response to the summons of the Senate impeachment court "ad cautelam" or with caution.

- By MARC JAYSON CAYABYAB and EVELYN MACAIRAN

Arnel Barrientos Jr., a messenger from the law firm Fortun, Narvasa & Salazar, arrived at the Senate Secretary's office at 5:49 p.m. to submit her response to the writ of summons issued by the Senate impeachment court on June 10, which her office received the following day.

"I wouldn't want to second guess the lawyers. They're filing the pleading with caution. That's what ad cautelam means. In their mind, they'd like to reserve some arguments. In compliance with the order of the court, they filed their answer, but they're expressing they are doing so with caution," said Senate Secretary Renato Bantug Jr., who is also impeachment clerk of court.

In her 35-page reply, Duterte reiterated that the "void ab initio" "Fourth Impeachment Complaint" must be dismissed for violating the constitutional one-year prohibition on initiating impeachment.

"Vice President Sara Duterte, without waiving any jurisdictional and/or other objections she has to this case... respectfully states (that) the Fourth Impeachment Complaint must be dismissed because it is void ab initio for violating the One-Year Bar Rule under Section 3(5) Article XI of the 1987 Constitution, which explicitly prohibits the initiation of more than one impeachment proceeding against the same official within a period of one year," Duterte said in her answer through her counsel.

"There are no statements of ultimate facts in the Fourth Impeachment Complaint. Stripped of its 'factual' and legal conclusions, it is nothing more than a scrap of paper," she added.

"Being laden with conclusions of 'facts' and law, the Fourth Impeachment Complaint is a clear abuse of the impeachment process," Duterte said.

The Vice President said she has "nothing" else to answer "since there are no statements of ultimate facts" yet.