Bukidnon 2nd District Rep. Jonathan Keith Flores is of the opinion that the Supreme Court (SC) “overreached” on the matter of Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment, setting rules that could now also affect President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s own impeachment proceedings.
In a press conference on Monday, Flores, Vice Chair of the House Committee on Justice, said that he believed the SC acted beyond its jurisdiction when it established rules for impeachment proceedings.
“For me personally, I think they did na nag-overeach ‘to ng Supreme Court, no, because these are our rules supposedly. And as a co-equal body, dapat kami ‘yung mag-set ng rules namin, sila, rules nila,” he said.
“Can we tell them to decide on cases within 100 days? We cannot, diba? Can we tell them na these are the procedures that you should follow? We cannot, because that is their procedures, and we respect them as a co-equal branch of government,” he added.
The House’s pending motion for reconsideration on the matter consequently creates uncertainty with respect to Marcos’ impeachment, filed Monday morning.
“... It is of paramount importance sana, that the Supreme Court rule on the motion for reconsideration. So that we can have some form of finality as to how to go about impeachment complaints. Kasi alam naman nila na February, parating na e. They had a year to study it, and they had a year to discuss it. And they know the importance of that particular ruling. Yet until now wala pa rin tayong natatanggap na desisyon ng Supreme Court,” said Flores.
Although some aspects of the impeachment process—such as what constitutes the initiation of a complaint—remain unclear, Flores said that the House cannot put off taking on this complaint.
“No we cannot wait for the Supreme Court ruling, we have to act on it based on the existing rules that we have,” he told reporters, noting that the High Court’s decision concerns the third mode of filing a complaint, which is through a one-third plenary vote.
Flores acknowledged, however, that the SC is the final authority on matters concerning the Constitution, although he argued that its stipulations were tantamount to judicial legislation.
“It is the Supreme Court which is the final arbiter of questions involving the Constitutionality of a particular action or law so sila din ang masusunod. Some would even say that this ‘constitutes’ judicial legislation, e. Kasi sila na ‘yung gumagawa ng batas na supposedly interpretation lang naman ‘yung sa kanila. By laying down additional requirements for the procedure, na supposedly within our sole discretion dapat ‘yan… overreach nga diba, for me,” he asserted.
The impeachment complaint against Marcos was filed by lawyer Andre de Jesus and endorsed by Pusong Pinoy Party-list Rep. Jett Nisay.
