Kiko urges SC to conduct oral arguments on VP Sara impeachment

Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan on Monday called on the Supreme Court (SC) to consider issuing a status quo ante order and call for oral arguments concerning the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte. 

This, as the House of Representatives, through the Office of the Solicitor General, filed a motion for reconsideration, seeking to reverse the high court’s decision junking Duterte’s impeachment case.

According to Pangilinan, a former chairman of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, the SC should “seriously consider” the earlier proposal of retired Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban, particularly the issuance of status quo ante order and the conduct of oral arguments. 

“By doing so, all parties—the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Supreme Court, and the wider legal community—can take pause, step back, and prevent the nation from sliding into a spiraling abyss of a constitutional war of attrition, both in words and in deeds,” Pangilinan said. 

“Such a conflict will only further erode the people’s trust in our democratic institutions and inflict lasting harm upon them,” he added.

Pangilinan also asked the SC to act on the motion for reconsideration “towards the path enunciated in its own ruling in the case Civil Liberties Union v. Executive Secretary of harmonising and giving legal validity and binding effect to the Constitutional prerogatives, powers and duties of the Supreme Court, the HoR and the Senate.”

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III said the motion filed by the House could be an issue the Senate could take up on Wednesday, August 6.

The Senate is set to discuss and decide on the SC decision declaring the articles of impeachment against Duterte as unconstitutional on August 6, according to Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero said Tuesday.