'Using Tagalog during impeachment trial may not be practical'

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang believes it may not be practical to adopt a proposal made by a Catholic bishop to use Tagalog or Filipino in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, since not all legal terms have direct translations in the vernacular.

However, Undersecretary Abigail Valte, a deputy presidential spokesperson, said it would be up to the Senate Impeachment Court or the senator-judges to decide whether to agree to such setup or maintain English as the medium during deliberations.

“I think that is something that will have to be addressed by the senator-judges in the impeachment trial because there are words and phrases that are technical and may not have a direct translation,” Valte explained.

Valte, who is also a lawyer added, “Inevitably magkakaroon talaga ng mga English words or even Latin phrases na walang direct translation sa atin so baka mahirapan din ang mga abugado na diretsong Pilipino yung gamitin.”

(Inevitably there will English words and Latin phrases used but without direct translation so our lawyers will have a hard time if only Filipino will be spoken).  

The deputy presidential spokesperson also hoped that the impeachment court would relax its rules on the adoption of Rules of Court in the proceedings.

“I believe that there are some senators who feel that it’s too technical. There are some who would want for a relaxation but we leave that up to the Senate as an impeachment court,” she said.

Bulacan Bishop Jose Oliveros earlier appealed to the lawyers and senator-judges in the impeachment trial to speak in Tagalog or bring their discussion to the level that would be understood by common Filipinos.

“Admittedly it is difficult to translate in Tagalog the technical terms used in legal discussions but they should find a way on how they could clearly explain and make the people understand. What is important here is not the technicalities but what is the truth,” Bishop Oliveros said in an interview on Radio Veritas.

Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes also urged the media to speak in Tagalog during their commentaries and to bring in lawyers to help ordinary Filipinos understand what is going on during the impeachment trial.