Marcoleta won't ask court to let him participate in VP Sara impeachment trial

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Senator Rodante Marcoleta on Thursday said he won’t ask the Sandiganbayan Third Division to allow him to participate in the impeachment trial of his ally, Vice President Sara Duterte.

Asked if he would file a petition to be allowed to participate in the trial, Marcoleta said that there is no use participating in the proceedings, which he said is “illegitimately” presided by Senate impeachment court presiding officer Francis “Chiz” Escudero.

“They [Senate] did not take up my manifestation because I was questioning, first of all, the legitimacy of the presiding officer. The last time I checked, it should be the Senate President who will preside. So kung hindi nila ita-take up iyon, bakit pa ako mag-participate doon?” Marcoleta said on the sidelines of the hearing on his pending bail petition in connection with the plunder charge leveled against him over P75 million in undeclared campaign contributions.

(So if they're not going to take it up, why would I participate in there?)

Marcoleta was referring to his July 20 written manifestation before the Senate impeachment court, which argued that it should be the Senate President to preside over the Senate court as provided by the Impeachment Rules.

“They have not even discussed, they have not even debated the merits of my manifestation and request. I'm hoping that you will discuss this and it will be taken up and deemed to be part of the proceedings of the Senate. Wala man lang,” he said.

The Senate, however, amended Rule 2 of its Rules of Impeachment ahead of the start of the impeachment trial of the Vice President which now states that “The President of the Senate shall preside in all other cases of impeachment unless the Senate, by a majority vote of the members present, elects another Senator as the Presiding Officer.”

Senator Jinggoy Estrada, who is also detained and facing a P573-million plunder and graft charges over alleged links to the flood control scam, had asked Sandiganbayan to allow him to participate in the impeachment trial. It was denied by the anti-graft court for lack of merit.

Threshold

Be that as it may, Marcoleta said that the voting threshold for conviction of an impeachable official is at 16 or two-third of the 24 members of the Senate.

“You will ask me why? I don't think the threshold is a subject of votation. It's already in the Constitution. Nobody has the right to change the language of the Constitution,” Marcoleta said.

“The Constitution says that no person should be adjudged guilty without the concurrence of two-thirds of all the members of the Senate. That's it. It is as simple as that. Why should it be a subject of votation? Are you questioning the language of the Constitution?” Marcoleta added.

A day before, former Chief Justices of the Supreme Court Hilario Davide, Jr., Artemio Panganiban and Reynato Puno all said before the Senate impeachment court that the Constitutional provision stating that two-thirds of all the members of the Senate are needed to secure a conviction does not mean 16 must automatically be the threshold for conviction.

The former SC Chief Justices shared their thoughts before the court as amici curiae, or “friends of the court," to answer the Senator judges' queries on the threshold for conviction amid the continued absence of at least four of the 24 senator-judges in the proceedings, including Marcoleta.

In arguing their position, Davide, Jr., Panganiban and Puno cited the Senate’s authority to try and decide impeachment cases and a “a strict, standalone, literal interpretation may result in absurdities and may result in injustices which will defeat the purpose of the Constitution.”

It was only retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Adolf Azcuna who said every member of the Senate should be counted in determining the threshold for conviction. — BM, GMA News