Rico commends Senate
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REP. Erico Aumentado (Bohol, 2nd District) has commended the Senate for its political will in obeying the Supreme Court’s temporary restraining order (TRO).
In a privilege speech before session adjourned for the weekend, Aumentado said the Senate exercised political will and judicial statesmanship in resolving to obey the TRO prohibiting the opening of the Philippine Savings Bank dollar account of Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Corona, he said, is on “historic trial” for alleged impeachable offenses in violation of the 1987 Constitution.
The 13-10 Senate action prevented the expected clash of titans – the Senate and the Supreme Court – that could have dire consequences on national stability and economy, he explained.
He said the Senate explicitly recognized the expanded judicial review power of the Supreme Court that now includes determining whether or not there has been grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of any branch or instrumentality of the government.
Aumentado explained that according to legal luminary Justice Isagani Cruz, this broadening of judicial power now enables the courts to review the discretion of the political departments of the government which, before, was forbidden territory.
The expanded power to review vested in the judiciary, particularly the SC, now covers even political decisions of the executive and legislative departments and to declare their acts invalid for lack or excess jurisdiction because tainted with grave abuse of discretion.
He said the Senate ruling is “anchored on constitutional and legal grounds, and the avoidance of a constitutional crisis disastrous to the stability and economy of the country at a time of global financial upheaval and the four decades of communist insurgency as well as the MILF and Abu Sayyaf secessionist movement in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
While the Senate is prepared to argue its case on merits and to defend the legal and public policy grounds before the High Tribunal because Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile has asserted that the Senate has the sole and exclusive jurisdiction to try and decide all impeachable cases, Aumentado said Justice Cruz had said that the SC may annul the proceeding “if there is a showing of grave abuse of discretion by the Congress or of non-compliance with the procedural requirements of the Constitution.”
These include cases where the charges are initiated without a verified complaint, or by less than one-third of the House of Representatives, or where the judgment of conviction is rendered less than the two-thirds vote of the Senate, the solon, a lawyer by profession, explained.
At the same time, he appealed to the SC to “be more cautious and judicious in the exercise of its judicial power of review over the issues brought to it related to the Corona impeachment case.”
He said the highest tribunal “must reciprocate the Senate’s statesmanship in obeying the TRO if only to prevent pushing the country into the brink of constitutional crisis, a public policy consideration which should be of paramount importance for our national interest and the greater good of the Filipino people as well as the life of our democratic ideals and institutions.” (by June Blanco)
