SAGIP Party-list Rep. Paolo Marcoleta tried to belabor already resolved matters during Vice President Sara Duterte's impeachment hearing Wednesday, March 25--something that House Committee on Justice Chairperson Batangas 2nd district Rep. Gerville "Jinky Bitrics" Luistro politely shut down.

And she did so by imparting a simple but helpful life lesson to Marcoleta: Do not move back, instead move forward.

The justice committee was finishing up on its agenda during the hearing when Marcoleta--a non-member of the panel--was given the chance to speak.

"May I make a manifestation as regards to my observation on how the rules proceed, on how the rules were applied between the Marcos and the Duterte complaints. There appears to be inconsistency," he said alluding to the impeachment raps against President Marcos that was dismissed last February to do insufficiency in substance.

Mamamayang Liberal (ML) Party-list Rep. Leila de Lima recognized this as a retread of the "double standard" argument, and thus raised a point of order. A point of order takes precedence over any manifestation.

"That issue has been resurrected a few times already and even the honorable chair [Luistro] has actually refuted that point...there is no different treatment," De Lima said.

Agreeing with De Lima, Luistro sustained the point of order "with due respect" and asked Marcoleta to speak about something else.

"Please be reminded not to move back, we have to move forward," the Batangueña told Marcoleta.

To this, the SAGiP solon said: "Every now and then the issue of due process comes up and we will always go back on the fair application of the rules between the Marcos and the Sara Duterte complaints." 

"I'm just making an observation madam chair and I think I should not be precluded from making my observation," added the son of Senator Rodante Marcoleta.

"With all due respect honorable Marcoleta," replied Luistro, "A point of order has been raised and the same has been sustained. So I hope we will conclude on our manifestation pertaining to the alleged double standard. Please shift to other manifestation which are germane to our current discussion in this impeachment proceeding."

But when Marcoleta tried to speak about a motion for the issuance of subpoena to a representative of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)-a matter that had already been voted on minutes earlier--Luistro again reined him in.

"So I am precluded from making any manifestations as a member of the House?" Marcoleta calmly asked the panel chairperson.

"It is precisely because the manifestations which are being raised are issues which have been ruled upon by the committee already...please confine your manifestations to the current subject matter of our impeachment proceeding," Luistro said.

"Please do not go back. The majority of the justice committee ruled already on the issue that you are raising. Let us respect the decision of the majority," she further said.

In the end, Marcoleta said he would "defer to the authority of the chair".

A non-member of a committee neither has the authority to make motions nor has voting privileges. However, he or she may attend committee hearings and make manifestations.

Vice President Duterte and her legal team didn't attend Wednesday's hearing, which was for the determination of probable cause in the impeachment complaints.