The Senate must push through with the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, even in the event of a change in leadership there.
Thus, said Deputy Speaker Quezon 2nd district Rep. David "Jay-Jay" Suarez on the sidelines of a leadership meeting among newly reelected House officers Friday, May 16 at Makati Shangri-la Hotel.
The House impeached the Vice President last Feb. 5. It's now the Senate's task to hold an impeachment trial on the lady official.
With the winners of Monday's mid-term elections all but offically proclaimed--and with the 20th Congress beckoning--there are again rumors of an imminent leadership change in the Senate, as well as in the House.
Asked if a sudden election of a new Senate President could derail Duterte's impeachment trial, Suarez says it shouldn't matter who the leader of the chamber is.
"I think they're constitutionally mandated to receive the article and act as the Senate of the Philippines transitioning into an impeachment court," the deputy speaker said of the senators.
The current Senate President is Francis "Chiz" Escudero.
But what if an upheaval happens in the House? Would this affect the impeachment trial? To this, Suarez flatly said: I don't think there is any change in leadership [that will] happen in the House."
The House's role in the impeachment trial is to send a team of prosecutors to convict Duterte based on the seven articles of impeachment that it submitted.