Unprecedented, unconstitutional, and dangerous.
That's how militant solons from the Makabayan bloc described the Senate impeachment court's decision on Tuesday night, June 10 to send back Vice President Sara Duterte's articles of impeachment to the House of Representatives.
"We, the Makabayan bloc in Congress, vehemently condemn the Senate impeachment court's unprecedented and unconstitutional decision to return the articles of impeachment to the House of Representatives," said ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro, Gabriela Party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas, and Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel in a joint statement.
"This brazen move represents a dangerous departure from constitutional procedure and sets a perilous precedent that undermines impeachment as a means for exacting accountability from the highest officials. The Senate's action is not only legally baseless but also a clear abdication of its constitutional duty to try impeachment cases," they reckoned.
On Tuesday night, the Senate, led by Senate President Francis "Chiz" Escudero, finally convened as an impeachment court to tackle the impeachment complaint against Vice President Duterte.
The senator-judges, voting 18-5, ended up voting to return the seven articles of impeachment to its origin, the House of Representatives, so it could be ceritified as non-violative of the one-impeachment-case-per-year rule. This is all while neither dimissing nor terminating the case.
"Ang ginawa ng Senado ay walang kapantay na paglabag sa ating Saligang Batas. Hindi pwedeng ibalik sa Kamara ang mga artikulo ng impeachment dahil tapos na ang papel namin dito. Ang responsibilidad ng Senado ay husgahan ang kaso, hindi ibalik ito. Bilang co-equal na kamara, wala itong karapatang pagpaliwanagin ang Kongreso sa prosesong humantong sa impeachment ng Bise Presidente," said Castro.
(The Senate's actions constitute an unparalleled violation of our Constitution. The articles of impeachment cannot be returned to the House as our role in this process is already concluded. The Senate's responsibility is to judge the case, not to send it back. As a co-equal chamber, it has no right to demand explanations from Congress regarding the process that led to the Vice President's impeachment.)
The Constitution is explicit in its provisions regarding impeachment proceedings. Once the House of Representatives votes to impeach and transmits the articles to the Senate, the upper chamber's role is to conduct a trial, not to return the articles as if they were defective legislation, she said.
Brosas agreed and said, "This unconstitutional maneuver will only further inflame the burgeoning outrage of the Filipino people who are already witnessing the systematic erosion of democratic processes under this administration."
The Senate's decision effectively nullifies the House's constitutional prerogative to impeach and denies the Filipino people their right to see justice served through proper constitutional channels, Makabayan said
"Ang mga mamamayang Pilipino ay hindi tanga. Nakikita nila kung paano ginagamit ang mga institusyon para protektahan ang mga corrupt na opisyal. Ang ganitong klaseng political maneuvering ay lalo lang magpapainit ng galit ng taumbayan," said Manuel.
(The Filipino people are not stupid. They see how institutions are being used to shield corrupt officials. This kind of political maneuvering will only further inflame public outrage.)
"We demand that the Senate fulfill its sworn duty to uphold the Constitution and proceed with the impeachment trial as mandated by law...The Filipino people deserve better than this mockery of accounatbility," they said.