The decisive factor in Senate President Chiz Escudero’s leadership will be his handling of the impeachment trial, as mounting pressures push him to initiate the process.

This trial presents a unique situation, unlike previous proceedings, as the effort to remove Vice President Sara Duterte will span both the 19th and 20th Congress.

The composition of the Senate impeachment court will undergo a significant shift, as 12 newly elected senators will step in to serve as senator-judges.

The dozen new Senate members will come from different fields not related to legislative work, much less trial proceedings.

In a University of the Philippines forum on the VP Duterte trial, UP College of Law associate professor Gwen de Vera believed voters will make their positions known on the impeachment through their senatorial picks.

“The legislature is a representative body and we should respect the vote on election day and that may certainly include a vote where a representative’s view aligns with that of the one casting the ballot on that particular question,” she said.

Former Supreme Court spokesperson Ted Te explained that the impeachment court, although made up of members of the Senate, is not bound by the legislative calendar and rules since it would be a different body with its own agenda.

Thus, he explained, even if the court convenes immediately to comply with the constitutional requirement that impeachment proceedings begin “forthwith” after the transmittal of the articles of impeachment from the House of Representatives, the process can continue into the 20th Congress due to the distinct rules governing it.

“If it had been constituted as an impeachment court while the 19th Congress was in session, and once the 20th Congress comes in, the impeachment court will still stand having been constituted already because it is not the Senate acting as a legislative body,” Te said.

Former Senate President Franklin Drilon stressed the impeachment court is not an ordinary body.

“Suppose the politicians who constitute the impeachment court make a decision and, say, they do not follow what the Supreme Court rules, can they be declared in contempt?” he asked.

Drilon was trying to drive home the point that several questions need to be addressed since the impeachment court is unique as a forum created by virtue of a complaint against a government official.

But for former Associate Justice and Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, “Whatever the impeachment court does will be a political question; the Supreme Court I believe would not take up questions on the process.”

“The next Congress can take over and continue it but it can also be understood to mean that it is as if the matter has been presented for the first time,” she said.

Drilon suggested constituting the impeachment court and concluding the trial before the close of the 19th Congress to prevent complications.

“That will call for a full trial up to its conclusion under the current session of the Senate on the assumption that there would be no difficulty in presenting the evidence on the part of the prosecution and on the part of the defense,” countered Carpio-Morales.

Drilon rebutted this, saying nothing will prevent the impeachment court from holding hearings from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily — recalling that he had gone through the process twice, in the impeachment trials of President Joseph Estrada and Chief Justice Renato Corona.

The argument showed that the Senate tribunal that will be formed is sui generis or a class by itself, including the problems it is presented with.

Escudero, the presiding officer, will need to stand on his own, like former Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile, who skillfully handled the Corona trial.

Thus far, the current Senate President appears to be evasive regarding the process, hiding behind the saying, “Prudence is the better part of valor.”