House approves rules on impeachment, inquiries

The House of Representatives has approved and published its rules on impeachment and legislative inquiries.

Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas, who chairs the rules committee, said yesterday the publication was in preparation for the referral of resolutions calling for investigations to the proper committees.

“The Constitution requires that we publish our rules on inquiries and impeachment for them to be binding. Precisely, all resolutions calling for inquiries in aid of legislation have not been acted upon and referred to the appropriate committee by the rules committee,” he said.

He did not answer a query on whether the House was preparing for an impeachment process.

President Duterte has repeatedly told his critics they could initiate an impeachment proceeding against him if they think he has violated the law and the Constitution, or has betrayed the public trust.

Duterte’s allies control both the House and the Senate.

His predecessors, former presidents Benigno Aquino III and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, have faced impeachment complaints.

Under the Constitution, impeachable officials are the president, vice president, Supreme Court justices, members of constitutional commissions and the ombudsman.

The grounds for impeachment are culpable violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, graft and corruption, other high crimes, or betrayal of public trust.

During the Aquino administration, the Senate, acting as an impeachment court, removed chief justice Renato Corona from office for allegedly failing to declare some of his assets in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth.

The Constitution vests the House of Representatives with the “exclusive power to initiate all cases of impeachment.” The Senate acts as an impeachment court.

Under the House rules on impeachment, a complaint may be filed by a citizen and will be accepted only if at least one member of the chamber endorses it. A member may also file a complaint.

In these two cases, the complaints go to the committee on justice, which will conduct hearings to determine if there is ground to endorse them.

There is a third mode of initiating an impeachment process: one-third of all members of the House can file a complaint. In this case, the Constitution provides that the petition would go directly to the Senate for trial.

The House can send an impeachment complaint to the Senate by a one-third vote of all its members.

A vote of two-thirds of all senators is required to convict and remove an impeachable official.