What’s next for the Justice panel? Consolidation and transmission – Luistro
House Committee on Justice Chairperson and Batangas 2nd District Rep. Gerville Luistro.
House of Representatives
After agreeing on the existence of probable cause in the two impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte, Batangas 2nd District Rep. Gerville Luistro said that the Justice panel was then tasked with summarizing its findings to transmit its report to the House plenary.
It was Luistro that announced that the committee was going to conduct another hearing on 4 May at the same venue of its previous proceedings for the panel’s members to approve the Articles of Impeachment that it was going to submit.
With both complaints receiving unanimous votes, Mamamayang Liberal Partylist Rep. Leila de Lima, the endorser of the third impeachment complaint, moved to consolidate all findings into one document.
The Committee Chairperson affirmed that only a single Articles of Impeachment was going to be furnished to all solons within the House of Representatives as well as to Duterte prior to conducting its vote for transmittal to the Senate which will serve as the impeachment court.
“We will transmit on May 4 and then I anticipate that the plenary will be transmitting these documents to all the members of the House of Representatives,” she said during a radio interview this Thursday.
Unlike their seemingly swift and scheduled process, Luistro explained that there was no exact timeframe on when the plenary was going to conduct the voting on the said report.
She noted that it was important for all lawmakers to be provided with ample time to study the contents of the articles so that they could formulate a verdict that was grounded on its study.
“What’s important is that they send copies of the document to the Vice President and members of the House of Representatives for them to be able to cope up with an informed decision,” the solon said.
Luistro expressed that the calculated approach stemmed from the Supreme Court’s decision on the previous case of impeachment against the Vice President which mandated that members of the House of Representatives should be granted with sufficient time to review all documents before voting.