Senators pitch to adjust impeachment trial time due to traffic —Zubiri

Senator-Judge Juan Miguel Zubiri on Wednesday brought to the floor a request by his colleagues to slightly move the time of the impeachment trial due to supposed concerns about traffic.

Zubiri said that “most” of the senator-judges had requested to adjust the schedule of the start of the trial from 10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

With this, he said the trial may end by 3:30 p.m. instead of 3 p.m., and the session may begin at 4 p.m.

“Because like the minority leader who comes from Bicutan, inaabutan po siya ng traffic ‘pag maaga. Ganoon din ang haba ng biyahe niya,” Zubiri said, referring to Senator-Judge Alan Peter Cayetano.

(Because like the minority leader who comes from Bicutan, he is stuck in traffic in the morning. That’s how long his trip is.)

“So, baka pwede naman ma-adjust natin ng 10:30 ng umaga and then 3:30 ng hapon tayo matapos, at 4 o’clock tayo mag-session kasi anyway, ililipat lang naman natin ang mga lamesa, madali lang naman ‘yan gawin. We don’t need one hour,” he added.

(So, maybe we can adjust it to 10:30 in the morning and then finish at 3:30 in the afternoon, and have a session at 4 o’clock because anyway, we’ll just move the tables, that’s easy to do. We don’t need one hour to do that.)

Other suggestions

Senate impeachment court presiding officer Senator-Judge Francis “Chiz” Escudero said that Senator-Judge Lito Lapid also has a suggestion to end the trial by 2:30 p.m. so the session may start exactly at 3 p.m.

Senator-Judge Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, however, manifested that he wants to stick with the 10 a.m. schedule. He also suggested that the senator-judges just settle the matter in a caucus.

Escudero said that the trial will resume next Monday, August 3, at 10 a.m., and will adjust the schedule depending on what will be discussed in the caucus.

When the trial began on Wednesday morning, only 14 senators were declared present in the session hall.

This marked the first day that the impeachment court began Duterte’s trial in the morning, after holding it starting at 2 p.m. for three weeks since July 6. —VAL, GMA News