Senator Alan Peter Cayetano did not hold back from expressing his frustration  in the ongoing trial of Vice President Sara Duterte when he led the Senate Impeachment Court into an opening prayer at the resumption of the impeachment proceedings on Tuesday, July 7.

The former Senate president, who earlier staunchly objected to the election of Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero as the presiding officer of the Impeachment Court, prayed that all senator-judges be guided “with fairness, political neutrality and due process.”

“Lord God, Holy Spirit, do not allow us to obstruct justice, yet always give us strength to obstruct injustice, regardless of the cost and the consequences,” Cayetano said during his opening prayer. 

“Magalit na po kung sino magagalit, gamitin niyo kami bilang instrumento ng hustisya (Let whoever is angry be angry, use us as an instrument of justice),” he said. 

Cayetano also appealed for "political neutrality” for all senator-judges in the course of the trial.

"Lead each one of us to pursue the impeachment trial with fairness, political neutrality and due process. To pursue the flood control scandal with the same zeal, effort, fairness and political neutrality. To pursue corruption in al forms,” he stressed.

Cayetano also prayed that God would help the Philippine nation build a justice system that is ideal, rather than one that is weaponized and is actually an instrument of oppression and tyranny.

“We may disagree on many things, but let us agree in asking for your love, grace and mercy upon the nation. We may have different visions of a prosperous Philippines, of accountability and fairness, yet we agree in the words you put in the framers of the Philippine Constitution, which is found in the preamble,” he stressed. 

During the opening of the impeachment trial on Monday, July 6, Cayetano raised constitutional objections to the designation of a senator other than the Senate President as the presiding officer in Duterte’s impeachment trial.

Cayetano insisted that the Constitution requires the Senate President to preside over all impeachment trials except when the President of the Philippines is on trial.

“It is very clear in the Constitution of the Philippines that the Presiding Officer is the Senate President. Section 3, Paragraph 6 of Article 11 of the 1987 Constitution, the Senate shall have the sole power to try and decide all cases of impeachment,” he said. 

However, his opposition and that of his colleagues in the Senate Minority Bloc, was eventually nulled following a 12-8 vote by the court members.

Escudero, then accepted his responsibility and formally took his seat as the presiding officer of the impeachment trial of the Vice President.