DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines—President Benigno Aquino III said Wednesday he could not understand the logic behind Chief Justice Renato Corona’s petition to the Supreme Court, which Corona heads, for an order stopping his impeachment trial by the Senate.
“If we read the Constitution — they might say that they are lawyers and I’m not — the English words ‘sole’ and ‘exclusively’ are clear… in referring to the power of the House to impeach and referring to the Senate’s right to try,” President Aquino said.
“So I don’t get the legal theory that all of a sudden the Supreme Court could involve itself in the impeachment process when the Constitution that we all swore to defend says that one part of the impeachment belongs exclusively to the House and the other to the Senate,” he added.