Topacio blasts House for defying SC

Lawyer Ferdinand Topacio didn’t mince words on Wednesday when he slammed the House of Representatives for ignoring some of the Supreme Court’s questions on the ongoing impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte, calling the move “arrogant” and “ignorant.”

Topacio, who speaks for the PDP Laban party on impeachment issues, fired away after the House maintained that its deliberations were purely “internal proceedings” and not subject to the Supreme Court’s oversight.

Topacio, in a statement, said, “This is not only an unabashedly extravagant display of utter presumptuousness, but a blatant disregard of the Constitution. Their refusal to cooperate is not only arrogant, but ignorant as well.”

Earlier, the Supreme Court sought information from the House as it deliberates on petitions questioning the impeachment of Vice President Duterte. The petitioners argued her impeachment violated the constitutional one-year bar on filing multiple impeachment complaints against the same official.

Topacio rejected the House’s position, saying it ignored the Court’s expanded power to review acts of any government branch suspected of grave abuse of discretion.

“The Constitution makes it the duty of the Supreme Court to determine whether there has been a grave abuse of discretion amounting to a lack or excess of jurisdiction,” he said. “To do that, the Court must be able to ask questions and obtain information.”

He likened the High Court’s role to that of a trial judge seeking clarificatory questions, and said accusations of judicial overreach were “pure and unadulterated hogwash.”

Topacio warned the House’s refusal to submit documents or answers to the SC could be interpreted as an effort to suppress evidence that might be unfavorable to its case.

“That gives rise to the presumption that the evidence being withheld is adverse,” he said, suggesting that the House may be “acting in bad faith by trying to conceal proof of its transgression of the Constitution.”

The lawyer concluded that the House’s posture undermines the foundations of a democratic society.

“These contumacious acts do not bode well for a well-ordered democratic government adhering to the rule of law,” he said.