Minority bloc to file reso insisting only Senate can remove impeachable officers

The Senate minority bloc is set to file a resolution stating that only the Senate, acting as an impeachment court, can remove an impeachable official.

Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said the resolution aims to inform the Supreme Court of the sentiment of the Senate.

“We are looking at the possibility of moving for a sense of the Senate resolution reiterating our legal position that it is the Senate acting, as an impeachment court, who can remove impeachable officers,” he told reporters.

As of posting time, GMA News Online saw at least three senators signing the resolution.

Asked if ousted Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno can use the resolution, Drilon said the document is for the record of the Senate but the former can file it as part of her pleadings.

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III said he is open to read the resolution.

“Kung may senador na magpa-file, we will have to entertain the resolution, it will be referred to the proper committee so hintayin natin if there is a senator who will file a resolution,” he said.

“We are the Senate, we can express our sentiments on anything under the sun. Allowed po yun sa Bill of Rights na allowed kami sa right for free expression,” he added.

He also said that the resolution, if adopted, is part of the Senate records but it can be attached by the intervenors to their pleadings before the SC.

Pimentel earlier said that removing Sereno through the quo warranto would be a "circumvention" of the Senate's role as impeachment court.

Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III has a different take on the matter.

He believed the Senate should not interfere with the decisions of the SC.

“It’s not proper. We should not interfere with the Judiciary in as much as we want to make sure that the Judiciary does not interfere with our legislation,” he told reporters.

By a vote of eight to six, the Supreme Court last Friday agreed with the quo warranto petition against Sereno filed in March by Solicitor General Jose Calida that alleged she failed to meet the integrity requirement for members of the judiciary.

The decision, said high court spokesperson Theodore Te, is "immediately executory."  — BM, GMA News