• Office of Minority Leader Edcel C. Lagman
• 0916-6406737/0918-9120137
• Official Website: http://www.edcellagman.com.ph
• 02 April 2011

             Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III wants to make senators approximate Pontius Pilate by allowing public opinion to influence the outcome of the impeachment trial of respondent Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez

             A senator sitting as a judge in the impeachment court must make his own judgment based on his personal appreciation of the evidence and the law irrespective of the temper and whim of public opinion.

             Otherwise, the Senate’s power as an impeachment court would be eroded and avoided if the ombudsman’s culpability can be partly determined in an opinion poll.

             However, the constitution categorically mandates that “The Senate shall have the sole power to try and decide all cases of impeachment” after the senators have first taken an “oath or affirmation.”

             The senators cannot share their constitutional authority and responsibility with anyone, not even with the people through the variables of public opinion.

             “Washing one’s hands” is a pathetic evasion of a sublime duty.