IBP: Impeachment should be used sparingly, in gravest of instances

The country's mandatory organization of lawyers on Wednesday reminded the public on the proper use of impeachment as a tool to hold high government officials accountable for their misdeeds.

"It is true that impeachment is one of the tools found in the Constitution to exact accountability," the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) said through its president Abdiel Dan Elijah Fajardo.

"Still, we are reminded that impeachment is bitter medicine. While impeachment is by and large a political exercise, it should be used sparingly and only in the gravest of instances."

Impeachment complaints are pending before the House of Representatives against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and Commission on Elections Chairperson Andres Bautista.

Among the issues raised against Sereno were her alleged questionable administrative orders, frequent foreign travels and grant of allowance to Sereno's top aide and other staff members without Court en banc approval, alleged anomalous purchase of a luxury vehicle, and undeclared earnings from her stint as part of the government's legal team in the expropriation case against the Philippine International Air Terminals Co. Inc. (Piatco).

Bautista, meanwhile, is accused of failing to address the voter data breach and the script tweak of the transparency server during the 2016 elections and having unexplained wealth as disclosed by his estranged wife, Patricia.

Another impeachment complaint is also being prepared by the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) against Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales over alleged selective prosecution of cases and sanctioning the filing of "losing" cases in order to shield former President Benigno Aquino III from liability for the death of 44 police commandos in the Mamasapano encounter in January 2015.

For the IBP, the "frequency and rate of these impeachment initiatives dilutes its power, strains the limited resources of Congress and, presents troubling questions whether like any other device, impeachment is being wielded wisely or carelessly."

"Impeachment is a scalpel, not a broadsword and, even if it were the latter, no sword retains its sharpness if swung too far and, too often," the IBP said.

The lawyers also warned against using impeachment to undermine judicial independence.

"May we express the hope that impeachment as a process is not being brandished as a weapon of submission, thereby defeating Constitutional design that the judicial branch be insulated from considerations other than the facts and the law in discharging its function of adjudication," the IBP said.

The IBP said its current leadership "will closely and impartially monitor" the impeachment proceedings "with the view that our institutions are preserved, not diluted." — MDM, GMA News