The Supreme Court can compel Senate President Francis Escudero to convene the chamber into an impeachment court to try Vice President Sara Duterte if he refuses to do so, former senator Franklin Drilon said on Tuesday.

Escudero’s postponement of the June 2 presentation of the articles of impeachment to June 11 has triggered speculation that the Senate would scuttle Duterte’s impeachment trial altogether.

“That can’t be discounted,” Drilon told CoverStory.ph in a phone interview.

“But the Supreme Court can exercise its jurisdiction to correct abuse of discretion,” he said. “It can order the Senate President to convene [the Senate into an impeachment court] and proceed with the trial.”

A petition for certiorari “to correct abuse of discretion” may be filed at the high court, according to Drilon, himself a former Senate president and also a former justice secretary.

Escudero informed House Speaker Martin Romualdez of the postponement on May 29, when a Malacañang-Congress liaison body identified certain priority measures ostensibly to be passed before the lawmakers adjourn sine die on June 14.

The postponement drew more rebuke from lawmakers including Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who said in a statement: “These delays are no longer procedural. They are obstructions dressed up as protocol.”

“It’s my first time to see a ball being dribbled for four months. Even in basketball, there is such a thing called shot clock,” she said.

Hontiveros described the impeachment process as “a crucial means of demanding accountability exclusively entrusted by the people to the Senate.”

“I have no plans of turning my back on that,” she said. “It’s time to follow the rules and start the process ‘forthwith.’ Enough games. Time to move.”

‘Evasive definitions’

Outgoing Camarines Sur Rep. Gabriel Bordado Jr. told CoverStory.ph on Tuesday that by dragging its feet on the trial, the Senate has been abetting “the erosion of democracy” in the country.

“They are expected to act [on the impeachment complaint] forthwith, but they are trying to come up with evasive definitions,” he said.

In a privilege speech at the House of Representatives on Monday night, Bordado slammed Escudero’s postponement of the presentation of the articles of impeachment by the chamber’s prosecutors. “Is this delay not, in effect, a compromise of our solemn duty as public servants sworn to uphold the Constitution?” he said.

Bordado, who was elected vice mayor of Naga City in the May 12 midterm polls, said he feared that the delay would lead to the scuttling of the trial in the face of legal arguments that the charges against Duterte may become moot if the Senate fails to act on these by the end of the 19th Congress on June 30.

“They are not just delaying it; they are doing away with the impeachment trial. That’s what I fear most,” he told CoverStory.ph.

Escudero has repeatedly said that senators in the 20th Congress—whose first regular session will open on July 28—will have the final say on whether the trial would proceed or not.

Bordado is among the 215 House members who impeached Duterte over allegations of bribery, corruption, and culpable violation of the Constitution in connection with the alleged misuse of some P612 million in confidential funds at the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education, which she headed from 2022 to 2024.

Collegial body

Drilon said the Senate, even with a new composition following the election of 12 senators in the midterm elections, can still try Duterte in the 20th Congress.

“The premise is that the senator-judges in the 19th Congress—or at least half of them—will no longer sit in the impeachment court in the 20th Congress. I don’t subscribe to that,” Drilon said.

He added: “An impeachment court is collegial in nature, like the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals. In the Supreme Court, justices retire. It doesn’t mean that the new court with newly appointed justices is deprived of jurisdiction to decide on the cases pending at the time of retirement.

“It’s the same doctrine here. You don’t lose jurisdiction simply because by force of law there’s a change in membership. It’s a collegial body, and the collegial body continues. It’s the principal entity. Composition can change, but the court itself remains.”

In February, Drilon called on President Marcos Jr. to call a special session of Congress to allow the Senate to try Duterte and reach a decision before the midterm elections.

The President has distanced himself from the impeachment of Duterte, who was his close ally until their UniTeam collapsed. His cousin, Speaker Romualdez, and his son, Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos, were the first signatories of the impeachment complaint.

Jurisdiction

On Monday, Sen. Francis Tolentino raised the issue of jurisdiction. He argued that the power to try Duterte is vested in the Senate in the 19th Congress and is not transferable to the Senate in the 20th Congress.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III and Hontiveros disagreed with him.

Pimentel pointed out that the 1987 Constitution does not prohibit the Senate from resuming an impeachment process begun in the previous Congress.

Hontiveros said the Supreme Court has made it clear that impeachment is a non-legislative function of the Senate. She cited the case of Chavez v. Judicial and Bar Council.

Likewise, she said, the high court ruled that non-legislative functions of the Senate are not affected by the shift from the 19th to the 20th Congress. She cited the cases of Pimentel Jr. v. Joint Committee of Congress.

“It is true that the 19th Congress cannot bind the 20th Congress—and all unfinished business will be terminated. But this is only true for any work done by us in the exercise of our legislative functions,” Hontiveros further said in response to Tolentino.

Drilon said that in the face of delays, the senator-judges have the primary responsibility to decide on the articles of impeachment, and the “burden to fulfill their constitutional duty.”

“Unfortunately, the remedy for [the non-fulfillment of such duty] is political,’’ he said, referring to the mass protests mounted against the senator-judges’ vote against the opening of a key piece of evidence at the trial of then impeached President Joseph Estrada in January 2001.

The protests—commonly referred to as “Edsa Dos”—led to Estrada’s resignation from the presidency.

Drilon declined to speculate if delays in the current proceedings would trigger street protests.

Bordado, for his part, expressed doubt that protests would materialize given Duterte’s high approval ratings in the surveys.

Asked how Escudero would redeem himself or the impeachment process, he said: “I can’t see the redemption. [The Senate] should have tackled the impeachment trial first.”

The Senate’s priorities

In his speech at the House on Monday night, Bordado questioned the sense of the Senate in prioritizing the passage of 12 measures over the “pursuit of justice and accountability.”

“Are we to tell the Filipino people that impeachable offenses committed by the second highest official of the land are less urgent than our legislative targets?” he said.

Bordado said he signed the articles of impeachment “with the full weight of my responsibility as assistant minority leader and as a representative of the people of Camarines Sur.”

“We cannot allow this delay to erode public trust. We cannot allow political expediency to blunt the sword of accountability. We must not forget that our allegiance is not to any political party or personality—it is to the people, to the Constitution, and to the truth,” he said, adding:

“As legislators, we are often measured not by what we pass, but by what we permit. If we permit delay in the face of alleged abuses of power, then we, too, become complicit in the erosion of our democracy.”

Read more: Vice President Sara Duterte is impeached