Concom eyes judiciary participation in impeach process

MANILA - Instead of only the Congress having power to remove all impeachable officials from office, the Consultative Committee (Concom) to review the 1987 Constitution on Monday bared that it is eyeing a proposed provision which will allow the Judiciary to participate in the impeachment process.

Impeachable officials include the President, the Vice-President, the Members of the Supreme Court, the Members of the Constitutional Commissions, and the Ombudsman.

This was the consensus reached by the Concom Subcommitee on the Structure of the Federal Government last week which is still subject to final vote in the Concom’s en banc session.

Concom chairman and former Chief Justice Reynato Puno said that the subcommittee wanted the impeachment process to be a joint jurisdiction of Congress and the Judiciary.

Puno explained that this means that while indictment will be left to Congress (both the Senate and House of Representatives), the trial will be a “strictly judicial proceeding” when it goes to the proposed Federal Constitutional Court.

“The process of impeachment should be both political and judicial in nature. The political part of the process involving the initiation of the impeachment process, the investigation and the preparation of the indictment would be left to the political branch of our government, more specifically to Congress but here you will note that this process is a given both to the House and to the Senate,” Puno said in a press briefing at Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) on Monday.

“In other words it’s a joint power to be exercised by both Houses and there is an impeachment body created where the composition is 12

members will come from the Senate, 12 will come from the House and the body is presided over by the Senate President,” he added.

Puno emphasized that the decision of this joint body will not be voted upon separately by each House.

“If the joint body decides that there is enough ground to impeach, [it] prepares the indictment then that indictment is filed immediately and directly with the Constitutional Court. That decision is not to be subjected to separate voting by each house,” Puno said.

Meanwhile, the judicial part of the process--the trial and judgment-- will be done by the Federal Constitutional Court.

The Federal Constitutional Court is one of the three high courts in the Concom’s proposed changes to the Judicial Branch to expand the generalized high court in the current Constitution to three specialized courts to address specific concerns or cases.

The other two high courts in the expert panel’s proposed provisions are the Federal Supreme Court and the Federal Administrative Court.

Asked if impeachment via quo warranto petition would be prohibited under the federal Constitution, Puno said that the matter is yet to be discussed.

“We have not reached that point. We will also be reviewing the grounds for impeachment. Again, you will note that over the years these grounds are the subject of contention and hopefully we should be able to review these different grounds…but we will reach that point, Puno said.

The Concom’s proposals come after the Supreme Court sitting en banc, voted 8-6, granting the quo warranto petition filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida seeking to nullify Sereno’s appointment for failing to complete her statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN).

Sereno is the first Chief Justice to be removed from office through quo warranto proceedings. (PNA)