The question of who will run Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial has a clear answer under existing Senate procedure, according to Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian, who says that role belongs to him.
Gatchalian pointed to the Senate Rules of Procedure on Impeachment Trials, which reserve the presiding duty for the Senate chief in every impeachment case apart from one involving a sitting president. “Under our rules, it’s the Senate president who presides. I should preside,” he said in a Friday, July 3 interview on dzMM.
That position, however, is not absolute. Gatchalian confirmed that the chamber had revised its impeachment rules to give the senator-judges the option of choosing a presiding officer from within their own ranks, a change that has fueled talk of installing someone other than him. He said he would step aside if his colleagues went that route. “If that’s what the majority wants, then we will elect or designate someone else,” Gatchalian said.
Attendance is another variable heading into Monday. Gatchalian said he anticipates a full turnout of senators, naming even minority leader Alan Peter Cayetano, who has objected to how the new leadership assumed control. Two names, though, stand as likely exceptions: Jinggoy Estrada, held by the Sandiganbayan on a plunder case, and Ronald dela Rosa, wanted by the International Criminal Court on crimes against humanity charges. Gatchalian said neither may be in a position to appear in person.
With participation expected to top out at 22 of the 24 senators, Gatchalian sidestepped the matter of whether the conviction bar — currently pegged at 16 of 24, a two-thirds share of the full membership — ought to be adjusted for the reduced roster. He indicated that Monday’s proceedings would not take up that debate.
Preparation for the opening has been extensive, he said, extending to security arrangements and even a backup power scheme to keep the Senate’s generators running should the need arise. “We are heavily preparing for the trial. Like I told our security cluster, it’s better to be overprepared than underprepared,” Gatchalian said.
He added that he has gone back over the Senate rules to ready himself for what he framed as a political rather than strictly legal contest, and he dismissed any suggestion that he would require a lawyer seated alongside him to steer the process.
