House prosecutor chosen to read articles of impeachment in VP Sara trial

The House prosecution panel has already selected which one of them will read the Articles of Impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte before the Senate next week, but declined to name the prosecutor for now.

“While I did not personally have the chance to speak with any of the senator-judges, I understand based on the agreement between the House of Representatives and the Senate that one prosecutor will be asked to read the seven Articles of Impeachment during the June 2 session of the Senate,” impeachment prosecutor and Iloilo 3rd District Representative Lorenz Defensor told reporters in an online interview.

Defensor said it is not required for all 11 House impeachment prosecutors to be present at the Senate during the reading.

“I did not receive any instruction that all prosecutors are required to attend the June 2 session. But only one prosecutor will be required to read the seven articles of impeachment,” he said.

The House impeachment prosecution panel had met earlier this week, the last big group meeting before their appearance at the Senate, although Defensor said smaller groups may meet again this week.

He also said the 19th Congress may be ending soon but it is only their legislative duty that will be ending and not their duty relative to the impeachment.

Defensor was reacting to Senator-elect Vicente "Tito" Sotto III’s statement that whatever was discussed in the 19th Congress cannot be carried over to the 20th Congress.

“Tandaan natin na kapag nagtapos ang 19th Congress, ang nagtatapos lang, ang aming legislative power. Hindi natatapos ang isang impeachment proceeding na nakahain na sa Senado,” Defensor said.

(Let us remember that when the 19th Congress ends, what only ends is our legislative power. An impeachment proceeding before the Senate will not be ended by that.)

He compared the impeachment case to a regular case filed in court.

“Once a case is filed with the trial court, the judge may retire, the judge may get promoted, but the case stays on with the trial court. Hindi nadi-dismiss ang kaso just because napalitan ang mga judges [The case is not dismissed just because the judges are replaced],” he added.

When asked if the issue may be brought before the Supreme Court, Defensor replied, “As far as we are concerned, since the impeachment is a purely political question, the Supreme Court should not interfere with the impeachment process.”

But, he added, “We will respect whatever decision the Senate will have on this and how they will act on it, as well as the Supreme Court on how they will decide on the pending petitions.”

There are two petitions before the Supreme Court: one filed by a lawyer asking the SC to compel the Senate to proceed with the trial and another filed by Vice President Sara Duterte asking the SC to block the impeachment, saying it violates the one-year ban rule.

“We also have to understand that the impeachment is the highest form of national inquest in our country. Hindi dapat pigilan ito [It must not be stopped] because the impeachment is intended to protect the people, to protect the government, from a high public official who is sitting in office and should be removed if necessary if she committed a violation of the Constitution,” Defensor stressed.

When asked if a senator can choose not to take their oath as an impeachment court judge, Defensor replied, “If you are a sitting senator and an impeachment proceeding is pending before the Senate, you have to do your constitutional duty to take your oath and act as senator-judge. Just like the prosecutors, we did not request to be prosecutors, we did not intend to be prosecutors. But we were elected by 215 members of Congress. And it is incumbent upon us to do our Constitutional duty to prosecute this impeachment complaint.”

Regarding President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.’s pronouncements against the impeachment, Defensor said, “The President should not be involved in the impeachment. And I'm glad to hear that the President as the head of the Executive Department will not interfere with the impeachment process. As the President is the most powerful man in the country, he will exert undue influence on the Senator judges and we want the Senator judges to act independently, free from any influence from the executive department.” — BM, GMA Integrated News