Election lawyer and former senatorial candidate Atty. Romulo Macalintal said that, based on the timeline given for the proceedings, the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte was already considered ‘dead’.
In an interview, Atty. Macalintal said that the 19th Congress has had insufficient time to proceed with the impeachment.
“If the impeachment case against Sara Duterte starts being heard on June 2, that case is already dead. The present Senate no longer has time. Its term ends by June 30,” said Macalintal.
Macalintal also argued that it may be necessary to restart the impeachment proceedings at the start of the 20th Congress because there will be new senator-judges who are not part of the 19th Congress proceedings.
There’s also a possibility that if the complaint is declared invalid, the Congress could only file another impeachment case by next year.
“If there’s a new impeachment case, it would fall under what’s called the prohibition in our Constitution – you cannot have two impeachment cases within one year,” the lawyer said.
Senate President Chiz Escudero also announced that the impeachment complaint reading would be reset to June 11 to prioritize completing important bills before the end of the Congress.
Currently, the Supreme Court has no decision yet on the petition for certiorari and prohibition filed by Vice President Duterte on February 18 to question the validity of the impeachment against her.