Senator Ping Lacson dared Senator Robin Padilla on Monday to explicitly name whom he was accusing of bending the law in the ongoing impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
The challenge came a day after Padilla suggested the minority may soon stop attending the proceedings if the group perceives deliberate twisting or disregard for the law continues.
Lacson contended that Padilla should identify the so-called law-benders, arguing that broad accusations could come across as a “direct assault” on the Senate impeachment court and undermine its integrity—the body he serves on as a senator-judge.
“I don't know what Sen. Padilla meant by 'disregard for law' or if he was referring to the entire impeachment court where he is a member,” he stressed.
“It is only fair that he clarify if his 'disregard for law' referred to the impeachment court or to individual senator-judges. If it is the latter, I hope he names them," he added.
Over the weekend, Padilla said the minority—mostly composed of senators supportive of the VP—does not have plans to boycott the trial, but may be forced to do so “If the bending of the law doesn’t stop.”
The minority lawmaker refused to label their group as the minority to preserve the neutrality of the impeachment proceedings, instead preferring to call their bloc “pro-Constitution.”
Padilla noted that the ongoing trial has seen “surprising,” or unpredictable, developments, which highlights the need to uphold the Constitution firmly.
“We, the pro-Constitution, believe that we should obey the Constitution…We don’t want it to get bent,” he pointed out.
Padilla admitted he does not attend every trial and often monitors proceedings on television to attend to other legislative duties, though he noted another factor: he is still awaiting the Supreme Court’s (SC) ruling on their petition challenging the new threshold.
He emphasized that the Constitution should not be tinkered with and that he is holding off on certain actions until the SC rules on whether he should accept the proposed threshold.
The statement came amid noticeably low attendance by their group in the past few weeks following amendments to the 16-vote threshold, which effectively lower the bar for convicting and removing Vice President Sara Duterte from office.
Members of the PDP Laban, led by Padilla and Senator Bong Go, petitioned the Supreme Court last week to halt enforcement of the 23 September ruling that amended the 6 July decision. The initial verdict set the required votes for conviction at 16, despite the absence of their colleagues from the minority, who are either detained, in hiding, or abroad.
Under the 23 September decision, the Senate impeachment court will base the constitutionally mandated two-thirds requirement on the concurrence of members who, at the time of voting, are legally and factually capable of participating in the impeachment proceedings.
As a result, senator-judges who are detained, suspended, suffering from physical or medical incapacity, whose whereabouts are unknown, and beyond the Senate’s coercive reach will be excluded in the computation.
Like the defense, members of the Senate opposition bloc argued that the absence of their minority peers does not automatically create a vacancy warranting an amendment to the 16-vote threshold.
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