Ten of the eleven senators aligned with Senator Alan Peter Cayetano’s minority bloc stayed away from a closed-door gathering of the full Senate on Friday, held to finalize arrangements for the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte set to begin on 6 July.
Loren Legarda and Robin Padilla were the only members of that bloc to show up. Most of the group are viewed as sympathetic to the Vice President.
The no-shows from Cayetano’s side included Pia Cayetano, Imee Marcos, Bong Go, Mark Villar, and Camille Villar. Also missing was Rodante Marcoleta, who according to reports faced a plunder complaint before the Sandiganbayan filed by the Office of the Ombudsman that same day.
Absences were not confined to the minority. From the majority ranks, Bam Aquino, Lito Lapid, Kiko Pangilinan, Raffy Tulfo, and Joel Villanueva did not attend either.
Two other majority senators, Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and Jinggoy Estrada, were kept away by separate legal predicaments. Dela Rosa has stayed out of sight amid speculation of an arrest tied to an International Criminal Court warrant, while Estrada has been in detention since 1 June over plunder allegations linked to an alleged flood-control kickback arrangement.
Those who did attend offered little about what was discussed, with uncertainty still hanging over the number of votes needed to convict and how Marcoleta’s legal trouble might factor in.
Senator Erwin Tulfo, however, said the session stuck to the trial and nothing else. “We were given documents to follow the sequencing. We didn’t talk about any other senators. It’s all about impeachment,” he told reporters in a mix of English and Filipino after the meeting.
The question of who would wield the gavel had divided the majority in the weeks prior. Some senators lined up behind Francis “Chiz” Escudero, while Senate President Sherwin “Win” Gatchalian insisted the role belonged to him. Gatchalian settled the matter Friday, telling a radio program he would preside as the rules provide.
Under long-standing practice, the Senate president chairs an impeachment court unless the sitting President is the one on trial. The Gatchalian bloc had nonetheless rewritten the chamber’s rules in early June to permit the election of a presiding officer other than the Senate president.
Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson had earlier disclosed a majority consensus to install Escudero, pointing to his legal training and prior impeachment experience.
That idea met resistance from Tindig Pilipinas, a multisectoral coalition backing the impeachment and among the complainants. The group branded Escudero “the most dangerous” pick available, faulting what it called his “twisted interpretation” of the constitutional instruction to move “forthwith” on the first complaint lodged against Duterte in February of last year — an interpretation it blamed for slowing the process.
Escudero has drawn fire before for arguing that “forthwith” need not mean “instant,” even as several framers of the Constitutional Commission have read it as “without delay.” His legal background, the coalition contended, “does not guarantee” either fairness or fidelity to the Constitution.
The court has set aside a lengthy calendar to weigh the evidence from both sides, with proceedings expected to run several months. House prosecutors are to present their case on the alleged misuse of Duterte’s confidential funds and her purported unexplained wealth, with time reserved separately for the defense.
Tindig Pilipinas co-convenor Francis Joseph Aquino-Dee said his own preference had been Pangilinan, another lawyer, though the coalition on the whole leaned toward Gatchalian.
