De Lima, Diokno on House team deemed ‘poetic’ and ‘strategic’

Leila de Lima, Chel Diokno and Sara Duterte

Two leaders of the House of Representatives said on Thursday that the addition of the legal prowess of former Sen. Leila de Lima and human rights lawyer Chel Diokno to the panel of prosecutors in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte would strengthen their team.

De Lima and Diokno, the first nominees respectively of the party list groups Mamamayang Liberal and Akbayan, are likely to be proclaimed as new House members soon following their parties’ victories in the midterm elections.

As members of the 20th Congress, De Lima and Diokno would bring serious legal firepower to the panel and further boost the credibility and integrity of the impeachment process, said Deputy Majority Leader Francisco Paolo Ortega V.

De Lima and Diokno, whom he described as “legal heavyweights” and “true icons of justice,” had accepted Speaker Martin Romualdez’s offer to be part of the House prosecution team.

The impeachment complaint, supported by at least 70 percent of the 303 House members of the 19th Congress, accuses Duterte of serious breach of the Constitution, bribery, graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes, including her alleged misuse of up to P612.5 million in confidential funds of her office and the Department of Education from 2022 to 2023.

Plan vs Marcoses, Speaker

Duterte had also disclosed that she had spoken with someone to kill President Marcos, first lady Liza Araneta Marcos, and the Speaker if an alleged plot to assassinate her succeeds.

The House immediately transmitted the seven articles of impeachment to the Senate on Feb. 5.

Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, who is enjoying a huge lead over his closest rival in the vote count, said that they were seeing “the convergence of moral clarity and legal precision in our pursuit of conviction” with the addition of De Lima and Diokno.

“(De Lima’s) inclusion is more than strategic; it is poetic,” said Alonto, the assistant majority leader.

“It tells us that the advance of justice, may be delayed, but never denied,” citing the former Senator’s seven-year detention on drug charges instigated by the Vice President’s father, ex-President Rodrigo Duterte, for which she was eventually absolved.

No mere theatrics

Diokno’s credentials include his decades of defending human rights and educating lawyers in upholding the Constitution. “His presence assures the public that this trial is about truth, not theatrics, not power plays,” Adiong said.

According to the lawmaker, De Lima and Diokno would provide the House prosecution panel with “more intellectual gravitas and moral steadiness,” essential to proving the case against Duterte before the Senate.

“When the rule of law is tested, we must answer with clarity, courage and competence. The House has done that by bringing in two of the most respected legal minds of our generation,” Adiong said.

Ortega, who was reelected as La Union first district representative, said the House wanted the people to see that the impeachment trial won’t be “a show” but a “serious legal undertaking with serious consequences.”

Ortega noted that the inclusion of the two incoming party list representatives was not just symbolic but was a strategic move to further enhance the impeachment case against Duterte.

He said the impeachment process wasn’t a fight between “colors or parties.”

“This is a fight for truth and accountability,” Ortega said. “This is justice in full force. We are sending the message that nobody’s exempted from the rule of law.”

The presence of the two incoming lawmakers will assure the public that the proceedings “will be grounded (on) legal merit and constitutional fidelity.”

READ: No changing of rules in Sara Duterte impeachment trial – Escudero

Unprecedented

De Lima and Diokno would be filling in for two of the original 11 members of the House prosecution panels who were not reelected in last Monday’s polls.

The impeachment trial this time is unprecedented in that it would be the first time that a new Congress would be trying a complaint filed prior to the election of a new set of lawmakers.

But barring any definitive ruling from the Supreme Court, the Senate is prepared to proceed in performing its role as the impeachment court as soon as Congress resumes session on June 2, according to Senate President Francis Escudero.

Sole power to try

Duterte has filed a petition in the Supreme Court questioning the three impeachment complaints filed one after the other in December, arguing that only one complaint against an impeachable official was allowed by the Constitution within a year. The three complaints were not submitted to the House justice committee, and the fourth complaint was immediately endorsed by 215 members of the House, more than the required number to send it to the Senate for trial.

If there were no temporary restraining order from the Supreme Court, “we will continue on,” Escudero told reporters on Thursday.

He also hinted that the Senate could decide on this legal issue “one way or the other, both as a Senate and as an impeachment court.”

Escudero said that there were Supreme Court decisions in the past that the Senate, as an impeachment court, had followed and others that it did not.

READ: Chel Diokno to join prosecution team in Sara Duterte impeachment trial

Under the 1987 Constitution, the Senate has the sole power to try and decide all cases of impeachment.

During the 2012 impeachment trial of former Chief Justice Renato Corona, the senator-judges urged the Supreme Court against intervening in Corona’s petition for a temporary restraining order against the subpoena of his bank accounts, arguing that the rulings and decisions of the Senate as an impeachment court cannot be subject to judicial review.

Notice to House

Escudero said that on June 2, the Senate would send a notice to the House to present the articles of impeachment which were approved in February.

“That is the formal procedure so that the Senate can formally take cognizance of the impeachment (charges), not the filing of the Secretary General (last February when Congress adjourned on Feb. 5),” he said.

“So, the complaint has to be read in plenary … by the (House) prosecutors,” Escudero said.

The Senate would then refer it to the appropriate committee and “that would now be the basis for the convening of the impeachment court, either the same day or the following day.”

READ: Leila de Lima maintains CA decision not reversal of her acquittal

Escudero, the Senate trial preparations covered details down to the invitations, IDs, security, holding areas for the prosecutors, the defense panel, the robes to be worn by the senator-judges, and even parking spaces.

Sara allies in chamber

The Senators of 20th Congress will include allies of the Vice President, including reelectionists Christopher “Bong” Go and Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, Imee Marcos, Sagip Rep. Rodante Marcoleta, and Las Pinas Rep. Camille Villar.

Mr. Marcos “will not meddle” in the impeachment trial of his former ally and now arch-critic, Malacañang said.

“That matter is now up to the Senate, and the President will not interfere, whatever happens,” Palace press officer, Undersecretary Claire Castro of the Presidential Communications Office, said in an interview with Teleradyo Serbisyo.

“But of course, we ask all senators to fulfill their obligation, not just for one person but for our countrymen,” she added.

“We will just observe who should be held accountable or who should be acquitted. We are all for the law, and we will follow what the law states,” Castro said.