MANILA – The body that President Rodrigo Duterte created to review the 1987 Constitution has proposed changes in the impeachment process.
Under the proposal, Congress and the judiciary will have “joint jurisdiction” over impeachment, said Consultative Committee (Concom) senior technical assistant and spokesman Ding Generoso.
“Impeachment is going to be a joint jurisdiction of Congress – to initiate and prosecute – and the (Federal) Constitutional Court – to hold the trial,” Generoso said in a statement Tuesday. “So it is neither purely judicial nor purely political. It is both political and judicial.”
“Concom’s proposal makes for a better check-and-balance system,” he added. “While there are countries where impeachment is purely political, our proposal is a joint jurisdiction and process.”
Congress shall initiate the impeachment and serve as prosecutor while trial shall be done before a judicial body, the Constitutional Court, Generoso said.
“By sharing the power, Congress and the judiciary check each other on matters of impeachment. There’s a better balance of power,” he said.
“Quo warranto is also a different matter from impeachment, which is the only subject of Concom’s proposal,” he clarified.
Earlier this month Supreme Court justices voted to remove Maria Lourdes Sereno as chief justice, granting a quo warranto petition filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida, who questioned the validity of Sereno’s appointment.
Critics of the decision said the removal was unconstitutional, insisting that an impeachable official like the chief justice may be removed only via impeachment.
The Federal Constitutional Court is one of the three high courts in the Concom’s proposed changes to the judiciary.
The other two proposed high courts are the Federal Supreme Court and the Federal Administrative Court./PN
