Office of Minority Leader

Edcel C. Lagman

31 December 2011

0916-6406737 / 0918-9120137

 

        Since the purported “verification” by 188 Representatives was the speed ticket which brought forthwith the Articles of Impeachment against Chief Justice Renato Corona to the Senate for trial, then a preliminary hearing on the allegedly fatal verification is in order.

 

        A prior determination of the legality and validity of the verification is not dilatory but necessary to place the horse before the cart, a valid verification as a condition precedent to impeachment and trial.

 

        If the validity of the verification is sustained by the Senate, then the impeachment trial must proceed. However, if the verification is found to be flawed and fatally defective, then the Senate must dismiss the Articles of Impeachment and return the infirm complaint to the House of Representatives to complete the verification process of at least 1/3 of the Representatives and re-file the same or for the Committee on Justice to conduct the impeachment proceedings if 1/3 is not obtained.

 

        A valid verification is required both by the Constitution and the Rules on Impeachment of the House of Representatives.

 

        Section 3(4) of Article XI of the Constitution provides that “In case the verified complaint or resolution of impeachment is filed by at least one-third of all the Members of the House, the same shall constitute the Articles of Impeachment, and trial by the Senate shall forthwith proceed.”

 

        There is a valid verification under the House Rules of Procedure in Impeachment Proceedings if the complainants swear under oath that they “have read the contents” of the complaint, and that “the allegations therein are true of our own knowledge and belief on the basis of our reading and appreciation of documents and other records pertinent thereto”.

 

        It is not sufficient that a third party explained to the complainants the contents of the complainant or showed to them a power point presentation. Personal reading and appreciation of the complaint is mandatory.

 

        It is physically impossible for 188 Representatives to have read and understood the 57-page complaint in a couple of hours given the admission that only four (4) hard copies were available in the caucus called for the affixing of the complainants’ signatures during which no questions were entertained.

 

        Clearly, overkill can boomerang and inordinate alacrity can breach the rules.