Pangilinan, Estrada debate over authority of SC, Senate impeachment court

Senators Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan and Jinggoy Estrada clashed on Wednesday on whether the Senate impeachment court was higher than the Supreme Court (SC) in relation to impeachment cases.

During the Senate’s plenary deliberations on the judiciary’s proposed budget, Estrada recalled Pangilinan’s previous statement that the Senate impeachment court was higher than the SC.

This was supposedly when the Senate had a caucus and discussed the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.

“Do you still stand by your statement that the impeachment court is higher than the SC? Because I’m not a lawyer but I stand in law for four years. But I really beg to disagree that the impeachment court is higher than the SC,” Estrada said.

Pangilinan, the sponsor of the judiciary’s proposed budget, responded that it is higher in the sense that a sitting SC justice can be dismissed on impeachment cases decided by the Senate impeachment court.

“In that regard, we are able to hold an SC justice to account. We render judgment. It’s a novel legal question and legal argument,” Pangilinan said.

Section XI of the 1987 Constitution states that the “Senate shall have the sole power to try and decide all cases of impeachment. When sitting for that purpose, the senators shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the Philippines is on trial, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court shall preside, but shall not vote. No person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of all the members of the Senate.”

Meanwhile, the SC, as the highest court of the land, is also known as the “court of last resort.”

Estrada then pressed if Pangilinan was saying that the Senate can summon SC justices and direct them to appear before them.

Pangilinan replied and cited the impeachment case of former Chief Justice Renato Corona. 

“Because it was an impeachment,” Estrada said.

Pangilinan agreed, adding that this was the context of why he said that the Senate impeachment court is “supreme” in its own jurisdiction.

“That is the context of why I said that as an impeachment court, we are supreme in our own jurisdiction and may, in fact, be higher than the SC in that regard when it comes to impeachment process,” he said.

“Because the supreme law of the land says so, that we have the sole power. It says sole, sole power, it does not say anything else but sole power to try and decide impeachment cases,” Pangilinan added.

For his part, Estrada maintained his belief that the SC is still higher than any court.

“I still believe in my own thoughts that the... impeachment court is sui generis and I believe that the SC is still higher than anyone else, any court in particular, including the impeachment court,” Estrada said.

Pangilinan recalled that the Senate previously voted on whether it would respect an injunction issued by the Supreme Court in the Corona impeachment case.

“We voted to respect the SC ruling. In other words, we could have voted not to, but of course that was not the case. It was an exercise of our exclusive power as an impeachment court,” he said.

Estrada then questioned what would happen if the vote was adverse to the decision of the SC. However, Pangilinan said this was speculative.

“Kung saka sakali (What if), what if the vote was overturned, 12-10… In favor of not respecting the opinion of the SC, what will happen?” Estrada said.

“It’s speculative… It didn’t happen,” Pangilinan replied.

Estrada said Pangilinan could educate him as a lawyer on the topic, but Pangilinan declined and reiterated that the question was speculative.

Then, Estrada asked if the SC has the authority to review impeachment proceedings for grave abuse of discretion.

Pangilinan said the Constitution provides that power to the SC. Estrada then asked if Pangilinan could ask the opinion of the SC justices or the court administrator who were present during the Senate plenary debates

However, Pangilinan cited the sub judice rule and noted that there is a pending motion for reconsideration on the SC’s ruling that declared the articles of impeachment against Duterte unconstitutional. — JMA, GMA Integrated News