Friends of Malacañang?
To be honest, the administration is dead set on convicting the former Education Secretary, come hell or high water.
To be honest, the administration is dead set on convicting the former Education Secretary, come hell or high water.
Contrary to common belief, statements and legal opinions submitted by amici curiae do not really possess binding probative value. While they may carry weight to a certain extent, they are merely treated as persuasive authority and informational aids. In fact, the court may outright ignore them should it choose to.
In most cases, these so-called friends of the court are frequently utilized to introduce legislative facts, such as social science data, historical context, economic impacts or scientific findings. Their purpose essentially is to offer specialized background knowledge that helps the court understand the broader and long-term socioeconomic and political repercussions of its decision.
Rarely are they called upon to interpret any provision of law because, for the most part, said provision is expected to be clear and, should it appear ambiguous, there are statutory construction principles that can help a court arrive at the correct interpretation.
This is why asking retired justices to testify in the impeachment court has raised some eyebrows, since the issue on the threshold may be resolved by simply applying basic statutory core principles. Certainly, there shouldn’t be any need for them because the supposed debate on the number of votes needed to convict the Vice President may be addressed by outright submitting the same to a vote pursuant to the Rules on Impeachment.
However, considering that the decision to lower the threshold may potentially leave a bad taste in the mouth in the wake of allegations that the majority is desperate to convict Sara but could not secure the needed 16 votes, they decided to ask for help from these legal experts, if only to legally justify their premeditated plan to reduce said number.
This is their guarantee that if Malacañang’s effort to convince members of the majority to switch allegiance, just like what Senators Joel Villanueva and Chiz Escudero did, the majority can still prevent Duterte from running by securing the needed number to perpetually disqualify her.
To be honest, the administration is dead set on convicting the former Education Secretary, come hell or high water. Allowing her to run and subsequently win the presidency is a recipe for disaster because it could be payback time.
This is why, ultimately, it’s either three more senators from the minority jump to the majority or, if this is not possible, reduce the threshold so it would be mission accomplished.
