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'Follow Constitution': Sotto tells fellow senators amid plans to oppose Sara's impeachment

Philippines | National

'Follow Constitution': Sotto tells fellow senators amid plans to oppose Sara's impeachment

By Joseph Pedrajas

Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto III said senators "must follow the Constitution" regarding matters of impeachment complaints, which means they are "to convene" and to conduct trial once the Upper Chamber receives the Articles of Impeachment from the House of Representatives.

Sotto reminded his fellow senators that it is their constitutional duty and "that is part of our work... of our job as Senate" to convene as an impeachment court.

This, after Sen. Robinhood Padilla announced the minority's plan "to oppose" the impeachment bid against Vice President Sara Duterte.

"Ang papel naman ng minority to oppose. Hindi lang impeachment. Lahat ng bagay dito, ang trabaho namin ay i-oppose (The role of the minority is to oppose. Not just impeachment. In everything here, our job is to oppose)," Padilla said, justifying their plan.

On Monday, May 4, the House Justice Committee unanimously approved its report and articles of impeachment against Duterte. The hearing capped the committee's series of exhaustive impeachment hearings, which reached its climax last April 29 when it declared the presence of probable cause in the two impeachment complaints against Duterte.

Sotto, who will sit as presiding officer for the upcoming trial, said he will bring it to the plenary and demand action from the Senate as a whole once his office receives the Articles of Impeachment.

"Automatic 'yun eh (That's automatic)," he said.

"I will be the catalyst, or I will [take] the initiative to bring it to the floor kapag pinadala sa Senate 'yan (once it's transmitted to the Senate)," he added.

Related Tags

Tito Sotto Robin Padilla Impeachment SARA DUTERTE

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