Incoming Mamamayang Liberal (ML) Party-list Rep. Leila de Lima has castigated the Senate for supposedly "lighting the Constitution aflame" in its handling of the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte.
"Harap-harapan na tayong niloloko. Kakaibang korte ito--korte ng kababalaghan (We're being deceived right to our faces. This is no ordinary court—it's a court of absurdities)," an exasperated De Lima said in a video post on X at past midnight Wednesday, June 11.
Hours earlier, the Senate impeachment court voted 18-5 to return the articles of impeachment to the House of Representatives for certification that it didn't violate the one-impeachment-case-per-year rule.
For De Lima--one of the 11 House prosecutors in the case--this was an utterly baseless action.
"Now the Senate as impeachment court has just lit the Constitution aflame. All the proceedings and motions taken in this so-called impeachment court have no legal basis; where on earth does a judge move the dismiss the complaint and without hearing the parties first?" she asked.
"We have just witnessed proceedings without boundaries, while the Constitution, the law, and the rules burn. By remanding the impeachment complaint to the House, the Senate simply made things opposite...without care for either constitutionality or proprietary," she said.
The former senator added: "Di na kinailangan ng abugado dito dahil wala na sa batas ang pinag-usapan. Kaya tuloy, sana sa palengke na lang finile ang impeachment case. At least doon, may nagtitinda ng totoo."
(There was no need for lawyers here because they're discussing things outside of the law. That's why the impeachment case should have been filed in the market. At least there, someone is peddling the truth.)
"Since the filing of the articles of impeachment last February, the Senate President has already discarded the Constitution by refusing to understand the word "forthwith"," De Lima said.
It was only on Tuesday that senators convened as an impeachment court. This was over four months after the House of Representatives had impeached Vice President Duterte and sent the articles of impeachment to the Senate.
"Where is it in the rules of impeachment that a senator-judge can move for a dismissal? Where is it written that the impeachment court can remand the complaint to the House as a nice way of dismissing it?" asked De Lima.
"Malinaw na walang due process. Sila-sila lang sa Senate ang nag-motion at nag-rule sa sarili nilang motion (Clearly there is no due process. It's just them in the Senate who are making the motions and ruling on their own motions)," she said.
De Lima went on to praise Senators Risa Hontiveros, Koko Pimentel, Nancy Binay, Sherwin Gatchalian, and Grace Poe "for standing up for the Constitution", after they voted against returning the impeachment case to the House.
"Shame on the rest for the this travesty and ignominy that will mark them for the rest of their lives. Hindi pa ito tapos (This isn't over yet). The fight for truth and accountability continues," she said.