MANILA — Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio is hoping that her petition against the impeachment complaint against her will be heard by the Supreme Court.
According to Atty. Sheila Sison, the lead counsel of Duterte-Carpio, there are “constitutional issues” surrounding the impeachment case filed by the House of Representatives.
“Sana mabigyan ng pansin ang aming petition. These are really constitutional issues. Kung babasahin niyo ang ating Constitution, even as the House has the exclusive power to initiate all cases of impeachment, hindi ‘yun absolute,” said Sison.
“Is the House permitted to have that unbridled discretion not to comply with its own set of rules that it had promulgated for impeachment proceedings just so it could pave the way for the fourth impeachment complaint that we think is constitutionally proscribe?” she added.
Sison said they have already asked the House’s Secretary General to provide them a copy of the over 200 signatures of the lawmakers on the fourth impeachment complaint.
“Humihingi kami ng certified true and correct copy from the Secretary General and I think this is a request that was refused,” Sison said. “We formally requested the Secretary General to provide us a certified true and correct copy of that.”
Sison also reacted to the comments of some House lawmakers that Duterte-Carpio’s petition before the SC is an “act of desperation.”
“I think sa kahit anumang issue na may magkatunggaling panig, may ganoong reaction. Hindi ko alam san makikita yung desperasyon kung pinag-aralan ang argumento, diba?”
In her petition before SC, Duterte-Carpio questioned the validity and constitutionality of the fourth impeachment complaint that was eventually transmitted by the House of Representatives to the Senate.
This was the second petition challenging the impeachment raps against Duterte-Carpio after a group of lawyers urged SC to issue a temporary restraining order against the conduct of the impeachment trial.
Duterte-Carpio was impeached by the House of Representatives on charges of “violation of the constitution, betrayal of public trust, graft and corruption, and other high crimes.”/PN
