Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Friday, August 8 defended the Senate against criticisms saying it was the Supreme Court that “killed” the impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte and not the Upper Chamber.

This after the Senate received flak for voting in favor of archiving the Articles of Impeachment against Duterte last August 6. Nineteen (19) senators voted in favor, five opposed the motion and one abstained from making any decision.

“Hindi pinatay ng Senate, pinatay ng Supreme Court (The Senate did not kill it, the Supreme Court killed it). We have to make that distinction. We have to make that distinction that it's the Supreme Court ruling that voided these articles of impeachment,” Gatchalian told reporters in an interview.

“So the Senate is duty-bound. Ito yung sinasabi ko even before nung bumoto ako na (This is what I said before I voted) against the return (of the impeachment complaint) to Congress. Dahil dutybound ang Senate (It’s because the Senate is duty-bound),” he reiterated.

Gatchalian argued that the Senate is dutybound to listen and respect the Supreme Court’s decision and in this case, it is the Supreme Court that said it is void ab initio.

“So walang choice ang Senado kung hindi sundan ang decision ng Supreme Court. Kung hindi natin susundan yan, mas malala ang constitutional crisis (So the Senate has no choice but to follow the decision of the Supreme Court. If we don’t follow that, a constitutional crisis would be worse),” he stressed.

Moreover, Gatchalian said he is confident the Articles of Impeachment can be revived should the Supreme Court decides to reverse its decision.

He said there are two ways in which the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte can be pulled out from the Senate archives.

One is through a vote of five senators and the other, by suspending the rules of the Senate.

“Under our rules, pwedeng (it can be done) by a vote of five senators, ibabalik ang impeachment at ilalagay sa (we can retrieve the impeachment case and put it in the) order of business,” Gatchalian said in an interview with reporters.

According to Gatchalian, he reviewed the rules of the Senate before the senators voted on Wednesday, July 6 on the motion to set aside the case and transfer it to the Upper Chamber’s archives.

“So pwedeng ganun ang mechanism. Tinignan ko yung rules before kami magbotohan (So there’s that mechanism. I reviewed the rules before we voted). That’s one mode,” Gatchalian said.

“The other mode is by a vote of majority, we can suspend the rules. And then when we suspend the rules, we can vote to bring back the articles of impeachment and put it back to the order of business. So there are two modes to approach that,” he stressed.

Asked how this will take effect, the lawmaker said a senator has to make a motion.

“Somebody has to motion. Somebody has to file a motion and then that motion will be, there are two modes. Five senators, one of them can file a motion and then the five senators can manifest their intention to retrieve the articles of impeachment out of the archives and include it in the order of business. Once, nasa order of business siya.

takbo na yan (that will proceed),” he pointed out.

“The other one is to suspend the rules. One senator would move to suspend the rules, and then a vote of majority can suspend the rules and retrieve the articles of impeachment out of the archives,” he stressed.