Inhibition voluntary; it’s up to Drilon

It’s entirely up to Sen. Franklin Drilon whether to inhibit himself from the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona over alleged bias for the prosecution, senators said on Friday in separate phone interviews.

The Senate impeachment court can’t even act on the defense’s motion seeking to inhibit Drilon and compel him to comment on it, Sen. Joker Arroyo said, adding: “That’s entirely personal to the member involved. That’s his decision. That’s a non-issue.”

Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III said the impeachment court had no rule on inhibition. “It’s left to the discretion of the senator concerned,” he said.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan agreed, saying: “It is addressed to the senator himself. Inhibition is voluntary and cannot be forced upon the individual.”

Ultimate decision

Even defense spokesperson Tranquil Salvador III said inhibition was voluntary.

Drilon flatly rejected the defense’s motion on Thursday, saying it was baseless. Salvador said the defense would respect Drilon’s position but hoped that the Senate impeachment court could still tackle the motion.

“The ultimate decision is with the court,” Salvador said also by phone, arguing that while the impeachment rules were silent on the matter, these also provided that the Rules of Court should apply “suppletorily” if the impeachment rules were inadequate.

In moving for Drilon’s inhibition, the defense said he was acting like an “ally” of the House prosecutors and taking up the cudgels for them in the first seven days of the impeachment trial.

The defense cited Drilon’s role in compelling Supreme Court Clerk of Court Enriqueta Vidal to produce copies of Corona’s statements of assets, liabilities and net worth after private prosecutor Mario Bautista failed to elicit any information on the documents.

Sotto said the senator-judges would likely take up the defense’s motion in a caucus next week.

No way

But Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile told reporters that the impeachment court would “not act” on it. “I don’t know if they want to discuss that in the caucus. I will not even present that to the members of the court,” he said.

Like his colleagues, Enrile said that the motion was addressed to Drilon and that “inhibition is personal to each senator of the republic.”

Enrile also rejected the defense’s prayer for Drilon’s disqualification, saying: “He is an elected representative of the people. Under the Constitution, he is entitled to sit in all proceedings of the Senate unless he is removed in accordance with our rules on ethics.”