The inclusion of the Senate as a respondent in Vice President Sara Duterte’s petition before the Supreme Court may be intended to ensure that any eventual ruling would also be binding on the upper chamber, a House leader said.
Batangas 2nd District Representative Gerville Luistro, chair of the House Committee on Justice, shared this view in a television interview, noting that the move could be strategic on the part of the petitioners.
“I think it’s because they intend the decision, if ever it will come later, to be binding even to the Senate. That’s only as far as I am concerned,” Luistro said.
Luistro emphasized that the Senate currently has no direct role in the impeachment proceedings, which remain under the jurisdiction of the House of Representatives at this stage.
“I don’t know the intention of the petitioners in impleading the Senate in the two petitions questioning the constitutionality of the proceeding of the justice committee,” she added.
Two petitions are now pending before the Supreme Court seeking to halt the impeachment proceedings against Duterte—one filed by the Vice President herself and another by her supporters.
In Duterte’s petition, the Senate, represented by Senate President Vicente Sotto III, was named as a respondent despite deliberations on the impeachment complaints still ongoing in the House.
Sotto has yet to comment on the latest development. However, he had earlier criticized a previous ruling by the high court on Duterte’s earlier petition.
“A clear encroachment on the power of the legislative branch as provided for by the Constitution. Impeachment is now an impossible dream!” the Senate leader said in a social media post in January.
Meanwhile, Luistro said the House justice panel will comply with the Supreme Court’s directive to submit its comment after the petitions were consolidated.
“Of course we will comply. We will file our comment and I understand that we have coordinated with the Office of the Solicitor General to represent us,” she said.