MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Rodante Marcoleta on Monday said that he is no longer inclined to participate in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte if the Senate Impeachment Court proceeds in a manner he believes violates the Constitution.
In a statement, Marcoleta reiterated his objection to the designation of Sen. Francis Escudero as presiding officer of the impeachment court, saying the arrangement is constitutionally infirm.
"I am no longer inclined to seek participation in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, including its eventual deliberations leading to the voting, if the Impeachment Court ultimately proceeds in a way that will desecrate the Constitution," Marcoleta said.
"The records of the 1986 Constitutional Commission confirm that the framers intended the Senate President alone to preside over impeachment trials, except when the President of the Philippines is on trial," he added.
Marcoleta, who has been detained over a plunder case stemming from an alleged P75 million campaign donation he received while serving as a party-list representative, also questioned any move by the Senate to adopt an impeachment conviction threshold that differs from what he considers the Constitution’s plain language.
He argued that the Senate’s authority to make its own rules is procedural and cannot be used to alter or override substantive constitutional provisions.
"In my humble view, the Senate cannot invoke its internal rules to rewrite a voting threshold prescribed by the Constitution. The framers of the highest law of the land expressed that threshold in plain and deliberate language precisely to prevent political manipulation and preserve the integrity of the impeachment process," the senator said.
"More fundamentally, the Senate’s rule-making authority is merely procedural, not constituent. An internal rule cannot amend, expand, or override the substantive commands of the Constitution. As the legal maxim teaches, 'A spring cannot rise higher than its source,'" he added.
Marcoleta warned that adopting a different voting threshold while proceeding under a presiding officer whose authority he considers constitutionally questionable "would fatally taint the legitimacy and integrity of the impeachment trial."
"Any judgment rendered therefrom would be vulnerable to serious constitutional challenge. I therefore cannot lend my participation to such an infirm process as it may be construed as acquiescence," Marcoleta said.
"The Senate’s sole power to try and decide impeachment cases is broad but exists only within the bounds fixed by the Constitution. I cannot even begin to think that we can achieve the constitutional accountability sought in this trial while openly — and with impunity — bastardizing the very Constitution from which that power arises," he added.
