MANILA: Senate President Francis Escudero said fellow senators agreed in a caucus on Tuesday (July 29) to decide on the Supreme Court’s ruling — which voided the impeachment articles against Vice President Sara Duterte — next week.
Escudero says the chamber has agreed to schedule the discussions on August 6 to give “ample and sufficient time to the members to study the 97-paged Supreme Court decision excluding the concurring and separate opinions filed by five or six additional magistrates of the Supreme Court.”
An all-member caucus was held on Tuesday afternoon before they opened the second session day of the 20th Congress.
Among those discussed were the impeachment, senators’ priority bills; bills approved at the committee level in the 19th Congress, as well as the legislative calendar.
In a separate interview also on Tuesday, Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri said it was Senate Minority Leader Vicente Sotto III who appealed that the discussion be made on August 6.
Majority of the senators agreed with Sotto’s suggestion, but Zubiri said some really want it to be “dismissed today.”
"We have colleagues who want to stand and have it dismissed today.
"They gave in to the request of our colleagues to give it one more week to carefully study and of course our discussions will be educated discussions on the issue," he said.
The Supreme Court earlier ruled that the impeachment complaint against Duterte is unconstitutional, halting the Senate’s scheduled trial.
Escudero, for his part, believes there is no longer a need for the Senate impeachment court to convene after the Supreme Court declared the impeachment case Duterte as unconstitutional.
He, however, underscored that this is just his opinion, as the decision of the majority of the Senate will always prevail. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
