The recent so called national rally for peace held by officials and members of the religious group Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) earned diverse comments and reactions from the public on what it was all about. According to some political pundits the peace rally was actually in support of the call of the President Bongbong Marcos for the members of the
House in Congress not to push through with the impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sarah Duterte. Others say that the peace rally was actually a show of direct support towards embattled Sarah Duterte.
The explanation provided by Edwin Zabala who is the spokesperson of the INC is more or less aligned with that of the sentiment of the President which is for the members of Congress to focus on working to address the various concerns and challenges faced by the nation instead of putting priority in the impeachment of the Vice President.
Nonetheless it must be pointed out that even with the noble intent of the INC group of holding a peace rally and calling out everybody for a united stand in the face of serious problems hounding the country it must be realized also
that the representatives of the House in Congress, and even the Senators, are political animals and their religion is
politics.
On top of that the lower house of Congress has its own rules to follow which for the most part is necessary for the orderly and smooth conduct of their legislative work. When it comes to the calls for impeachment against VP Duterte we find that the general process of the proceeding can be found in the 1987 Philippine Constitution. In Article XI of the said law, which talks about the accountability of public officers we learn that impeachment is an instrument to remove, “the president, the vice-president, the members of the Supreme Court, the members of the constitutional
commissions, and the ombudsman may be removed from office, on impeachment for, and conviction of, culpable violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, graft and corruption, other high crimes, or betrayal of public trust.
All other public officer and employees may be removed from office as provided by law, but not by impeachment.”
(Section 2, Article XI 1987 Phil. Constitution) Those subject to impeachment belongs therefore to an exclusive group and can only be removed from office through such process. It is likewise declared in Article XI of the constitution that it is only the House of Representatives that has the exclusive power to initiate, or begin, all cases of impeachment while the Senate or the Upper House has the sole power to try and decide all cases of impeachment.
It is also declared in the constitution that Congress, meaning the lower house and the upper house, shall promulgate its rules on impeachment to effectively carry out the purpose of the said proceeding. For the Lower House in Congress their rules of procedure in impeachment proceedings provide that there are three modes of initiating
impeachment filed and referred to the House Committee on Justicer, these are: (a) a verified complaint for impeachment filed by any Member of the House of Representatives, or (b) a verified complaint filed by any citizen upon a resolution of endorsement by any Member thereof; or (c) a verified complaint or resolution of impeachment filed by at least one-third (1/3) of all Members of the House.
At the moment there are three verified complaints filed by various groups to impeach the vice president and are ready to be transmitted anytime to the office of House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez who, as provided by their rules, has ten days to include the three complaints in the House plenary’s Order of Business. Because of this and since there are rules on impeachment, both dictated by the Constitution and in Congress, then it is only reasonable for the lower house to comply with its rules and process the three impeachment complaints against the Vice President, the INC national rally for peace notwithstanding.
Since there are rules to follow then the Lower House has no recourse except to obey the dictates of the Constitution
and its own rules of procedure when it comes to an impeachment proceeding. To do otherwise would be to abandon their solemn duty and role of serving as guardians in the protection of a public office and the accountability of public
officers.
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