BETWEEN APRIL 1 and August 5 – or a good four months for Vice President Sara Duterte’s appeal to be acted upon by the Supreme Court– could be an indication that the VP is losing her father’s clout in the High Tribunal, where she sought to stop and question the constitutionality of the ongoing impeachment trial against her.
The SC in a ruling on August 5, in an en banc session, dismissed the consolidated petitions that questioned the House proceedings on the impeachment complaints against the VP for being “”moot” as the trial proceedings are ongoing.
The VP filed her petition for certiorari and prohibition—seeking a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction, and a final injunction to nullify and halt the House impeachment proceedings—before the SC on April 1.
Duterte, during his six year term, appointed 15 justices to the Supreme Court, including two Chief Justices– Teresita J. Leonardo de Castro and Lucas Bersamin (who later on became executive secretary of the incumbent president) but was succeeded by Alexander Gesmundo, also under Duterte.
Junked were the petitions filed by the VP and Duterte-allied lawyers led by Israelito Torreon, with the latter petition arguing that the House’s justice committee “exceeded its constitutional authority by gathering evidence and compelling witnesses to appear” in the hearings. They had also questioned the House committee on justice’s findings that the impeachment complaints were “sufficient in form, substance, and grounds.
“While the SC recognized that it may, in exceptional cases, decide issues that have become moot, it found that none of the recognized exceptions applied in this case,” the SC said.
The SC said the issues raised “no longer required resolution, because the House had already approved and transmitted the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate, ” wrote Rappler.
“As a result, the actions the petitioner sought to stop had already been completed,” it added.
In addition, the “SC further held that the impeachment process had already moved to the Senate, which had convened as an impeachment court and had begun proceedings.
“Any ruling on the validity of the actions taken by the House and its Committee on Justice would no longer affect the controversy,” the SC said.
Last March 25, Torreon and other Duterte lawyers had asked the High Tribunal Court to issue a temporary restraining order to block the House’s impeachment proceedings against the Vice President.
Duterte, in her petition, argued that the complaints against her were invalid due to the alleged violation of the one-year bar on impeachment, and that the referral of the complaints was invalid since it was only done by the rules committee and not the House as a collective body.
The impeachment case against Duterte alleges that she misused confidential funds, amassed unexplained wealth, bribed government officials, and threatened the life of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos, and former House speaker Martin Romualdez.