00:00Impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte should not be passed in due process, according to some experts.
00:10But aside from the duration of the process, it will also have an effect after the election in May,
00:20because the congressmen and senators will be re-elected.
00:24Maki Polido has a point.
00:26Impeachment!
00:30Regarding the impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte,
00:34the question is, is there still time for the congressmen and senators to finish it?
00:39The session is until December 20, and they will return on January 13, 2025.
00:44After almost a month, or on February 8, the congressmen and senators will be re-adjourned,
00:49and the resumption will be on June 2.
00:51Under this calendar, the impeachment process will be postponed.
00:55Associate Professor Christopher Berce, the dean of UP-NCPAG, explained.
00:59The complaints filed by the House Committee on Justice will first check if the impeachment complaint is valid.
01:07They have a maximum of 60 days to do this.
01:10It may not be postponed, but the due process should be followed.
01:15Under the Committee on Justice, the hearing cannot be railroaded.
01:24All panels should be heard, and all evidence should be checked for fairness.
01:32In the impeachment of former President Joseph Estrada,
01:35for example, it took a month for the complaint to be filed in October 2000
01:40before he was impeached in the House of Representatives in November of that year.
01:44His impeachment trial started in December.
01:47The Senate will form the impeachment court,
01:49the Senate President will be the presiding officer,
01:52and 11 senators will be the prosecutors.
01:54They will vote on whether they are guilty or not guilty.
01:58In the past impeachments, the usual rules of the court are followed in the impeachment proceedings.
02:05The process may speed up if the guilty is proven on one ground of the impeachment complaint.
02:11Like the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona in 2012,
02:15the impeachment trial lasted for 44 days.
02:19The administration needs to prove on one ground.
02:25It can be fast in that sense.
02:27As long as the VP is given an opportunity to challenge the evidence against her.
02:34It can be easy, but the due process should not be delayed.
02:38If the process is delayed, it is not good even for the people of the country.
02:46But there is a complication.
02:48The composition of the Congress will change after the election of May 2025.
02:53The newly elected Congressmen and Senators will sit down on June 30.
02:57It is not clear in the impeachment guidelines
02:59what will happen after the impeachment if that happens.
03:03But UP Law Professor Dan Gatmaytan
03:05can ask VP Sara to repeat the process.
03:09For example, in the Senate, if the membership changes,
03:14your judge already changed.
03:17You can just argue that it needs to start over.
03:21The impeachment process is important because it is the way to answer the high-ranking officials of the country who are guilty.
03:29But hopefully, it won't take long because the government's attention will shift
03:34to the more important issue that is close to the heart of the people.
03:38For GMA Integrated News, Macky Pulido, for Tutok, 24 Hours.
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