‘Duterte Senate’: Solons say archiving impeachment is ‘killing’ it

MANILA, Philippines — Members of the House of Representatives have called out the Senate for archiving the articles of impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte, claiming that this is just another way of killing the pursuit for accountability of high-ranking officials.

In a statement on Wednesday, after the Senate voted 19-4 to archive the impeachment, Akbayan party-list Rep. Percival Cendaña said that the chamber’s decision was a “surrender” of their independence.

READ: Senate archives impeachment case against VP Sara Duterte

Furthermore, Cendaña claimed that the senators showed that their chamber is currently a “Duterte Senate.”

“Nakakahiya ang desisyon ng Senado patungkol sa impeachment complaint laban sa Bise Presidente. They chose to surrender their independence and willfully abandon their constitutional mandate,” he said.

(The Senate’s decision regarding the impeachment complaint against the Vice President is embarrassing.)

“Today, the Senate decided to become a Duterte Senate. Sa pagtalikod ng Senado sa kanyang tungkulin, nagsilbi itong tiga-kunsinte at tiga-kubli ng mga krimen ng Bise Presidente,” he added.

(Today, the Senate decided to become a Duterte Senate. With the Senate turning back on its duty, it became an enabler and a sanctaury for the crimes committed by the Vice President.)

Cendaña’s fellow Akbayan lawmaker, Rep. Chel Diokno, said that it would have been prudent for the Senate to await the Supreme Court (SC) ruling on Duterte’s impeachment before even acting on it.

Last July 25, SC spokesperson Camille Ting announced that the SC unanimously deemed the articles of impeachment forwarded by the House to the Senate as unconstitutional for violating the 1987 Constitution’s one-year bar rule. This prompted the Senate to schedule a discussion of the impeachment’s fate, to deliberate whether the Senate impeachment court should continue or not.

“It would have been more prudent for the Senate to wait for the ruling of the Supreme Court on the motion for reconsideration filed by the House of Representatives. Instead, the Senate hammered another nail on the coffin of accountability—anupamang itawag d’yan, to dismiss, archive, o sa salita ng isa mismong Senador, kill the Articles of Impeachment,” Diokno said.

“We reiterate our call for the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision. Even the highest officials must be held accountable for wrongdoings against the Filipino people,” he added.

Makabayan bloc lawmakers ACT Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio and Kabataan party-list Rep. Renee Co meanwhile believe that archiving is only a cover to the actual intent of senators—to kill the impeachment.

“We condemn in the strongest terms the Senate’s decision to “archive” the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte. Archiving is nothing but a shameless attempt to kill the case while claiming they “never had jurisdiction” in the first place. Kung hindi naman pala nila hawak, paano mo a-archive?” Makabayan asked.

“The Senate wants to spare itself from the optics of openly junking the case, yet the result is the same: the Filipino people are denied accountability for the still-unexplained P612.5 million in confidential funds,” they added.

Last February 5, Duterte was impeached after 215 House members from the 19th Congress filed and signed a fourth complaint, which was based on allegations of misuse of confidential funds in her offices, threats against ranking officials, and other possible violations of the 1987 Constitution.

The articles of impeachment were immediately transmitted to the Senate on the same day, in accordance with the 1987 Constitution, which mandates that a trial must begin promptly if at least one-third of all House members—or 102 out of 306—endorse the complaint.

READ: House impeaches Sara Duterte, fast-tracking transmittal to Senate

But in February, two petitions seeking to halt the impeachment complaints against Duterte were filed before the Supreme Court. One of the petitions came from a group of Mindanao-based lawyers who argued that the House failed to observe constitutional rules requiring it to act on filed impeachment complaints within 10 session days.

Duterte herself, represented by allied lawyers including her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, also asked the SC to stop the impeachment proceedings on the basis that it violated Constitutional provisions stating that only one impeachment complaint will be initiated against a sitting official per year.

READ: VP Sara Duterte files petition at SC to stop impeachment moves against her

Earlier, prosecution team member and Manila Rep. Joel Chua said that the pursuit of accountability is not over, noting that the current status is only an impasse between the two chambers.

“We shall not be deterred in our quest for accountability. The Senate action today is not a checkmate. But the Senate denied due process to the Filipino people,” Chua, one of the prosecutors for the impeachment, said.

“We are merely at an impasse. This game is far from over. We still have strong moves to make in this high-stakes battle for justice and accountability,” he added.

It was Chua’s panel in the 19th Congress, the House committee on good government and public accountability, that led investigations of issues hounding Duterte’s offices—the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and previously, the Department of Education (DepEd).

One of the discoveries made during the course of the hearings was that there were weird names signing off acknowledgement receipts (ARs) for the confidential expenses made by Duterte’s offices.

ARs are documents submitted to the Commission on Audit to prove that funding for projects reached its intended beneficiaries, which in this case, are confidential informants.

Antipolo City Rep. Romeo Acop noticed that one of the individuals who signed the ARs was named Mary Grace Piattos—a name similar to a restaurant and a potato chip brand.

Later on, Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong showed two ARs—one for the Office of the Vice President and another for the Department of Education—which were both received by a certain Kokoy Villamin. However, the signatures and handwriting used by the Villamin in the two documents differed.

Both names were also not found inside the Philippine Statistics Authority database.

READ: House probe: OVP, DepEd CFs received by same man, different signatures

Since this discovery, more weird names were found: La Union Rep. Paolo Ortega V released different lists containing names resembling that of public officials, multiple “Fionas,” a “Magellan” and another individual with the surname “Ewan,” which is a Filipino slang for ‘I don’t know.’

Ortega also released a set of names said to be from a grocery shopping list, while there were some names that sounded like a phone brand— Xiaome Ocho.

Eventually, the different findings of the committee were included in the fourth impeachment complaint against Duterte. /cb