Nene: Let Senate handle impeachment complaint

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said yesterday that the Senate can immediately throw away the impeachment case against Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. if the charges are found to be "not impeachable offenses" or if they have "serious constitutional infirmities."

Pimentel made the statement as he chided Congress for abruptly adjourning on Tuesday instead of officially transmitting the articles of impeachment to the Senate.

He said that if the Senate had the chance to act speedily on the impeachment case, the country would have been spared from the agony of the crisis.

Pimentel, who will act as one of the judges in the impeachment court against Davide, said that the moment the articles of impeachment are forwarded by the House of Representatives to the Senate, the first thing senators must do is look into the substantive aspect of the case and determine whether the grounds cited by congressmen for removing Davide are indeed impeachable and in conformity with the Constitution.

The opposition senator explained that issue could only be resolved by the Senate impeachment court and not by any other courts of the land.

Pimentel stressed that if the allegations were not based on constitutional or legal grounds but on personal motives, there will be no justification to proceed with the impeachment process.

"The mere allegations that funds were misused are just that, as far as we are concerned at this point. So we will have to take a look as to whether or not there is substantial basis for the impeachment," Pimentel said.

He assured the people that the senators would not be swayed by partisan political considerations in dealing with the impeachment case unlike the unfinished impeachment proceedings against jailed former President Joseph Estrada three years ago.

"My view is that there would be no more twisting in the wind for anyone. We will proceed and I believe in 10 days, it will be over. The situation was far different at that time when it was the president himself who was being impeached. Certainly, we had fireworks in the Senate. And as a result showed there was a division mainly along party lines," Pimentel said.

He assured the Chief Justice that the Senate will treat the impeachment case against him with the highest sense of fairness and impartiality.

"As senators, we viewed the impeachment raps against Chief Justice Davide as mature upholders of the rule of law and dignified defenders of the Constitution," he said, stressing the fact that in the 216-year history of the United States Constitution, there has never been a president who has been successfully impeached.

He said that what happened to impeachment trial of Estrada will not happen to the case of Davide.

"This time, I don’t think that will happen. The point here is if the House, in initiating the impeachment made a mistake, the Senate as impeachment court corrects that mistake. If the Senate commits a mistake, the people will correct that. How? During election time, punish them for what they did. But if the Supreme Court makes a mistake by assuming that this function is theirs, who will correct the mistake?" Pimentel asked.

Meanwhile, two other opposition lawmakers, Sen. Edgardo Angara and Rep. Gerardo Espina, have sought a political solution to the crisis.

Angara and Espina told the Weekly Balitaan sa Rembrandt Forum in Quezon City that the impeachment process is a purely political exercise which can only be deliberated by the House of Representatives and the Senate.

They appealed, though, for sobriety among parties involved and allow the respective branches of government to resolve the issue.

In a separate telephone interview, Rep. Constantino Jaraula (LDP-Cagayan de Oro) expressed full support to President Arroyo’s effort to seek a "constitutional reconciliation to defuse the deadlock."

Jaraula, who was among those who signed the impeachment complaint, said that a constitutional reconciliation would be a full recognition of the fiscal autonomy of the Supreme court although greater caution is necessary when it comes to special funds with specific purpose like the Judicial Development Fund (JDF).

However, Congress has the exclusive power on appropriations and correspondingly has oversight power to look into the operation of government departments with regards to funds.

Jaraula said that Congress recently approved a bill increasing by 100 per cent the salaries of all members of the judiciary from Chief Justice to the regional trial judges and other positions with similar ranks.

"Under the newly approved law, 25 per cent of the increase will be funded under the JDF. The passage of this new law (Republic Act 9227) demonstrates good faith on the part of the Congress," he said. — With Perseus Echeminada