House preparing reply disputing SC power over impeach cases

Heeding Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.’s advice, the House of Representatives is preparing its reply to the Supreme Court order suspending the impeachment proceedings against Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez. In the reply, the chamber will insist it will not submit itself to the jurisdiction of the high court, Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas, chairman of the justice committee hearing the two impeachment complaints, told reporters in a text message. "We will file [a] comment to the SC, but without submitting to their jurisdiction on the status quo ante order. The justice committee gave me authority to sign the pleadings and do what is necessary to defend the committee on the case before the SC," Tupas said. "We are still finalizing the comment. We will question the jurisdiction of the SC on this case," he added. The chamber has until September 27 to submit its comment, a day before the scheduled resumption of the committee hearing on the issue. On the scheduled oral argument of the case on September 30, Tupas said the committee will still discuss the matter with Belmonte. Belmonte favored the idea that the chamber should give a reply to the SC order, instead of ignoring it. On Tuesday night, Zambales Rep. Ma. Milagros Magsaysay, an ally of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, urged her colleagues to make a stand and defend the House mandate over impeachment cases. "Now that they [SC justices] issued this status quo ante, are we just going to be sitting ducks and watch this beloved institution of ours emasculated and be disintegrated? The status quo ante order is premature," Magsaysay said in a privilege speech. She insisted that the House has not deprived Gutierrez of her right to due process, and that the justice committee will still hold hearings to determine if she is culpable, and in the process she can present her side. "We should not heed the status quo order ante for it has no basis and it interrupts our work, which the Constitution has tasked us to do," she said. The lawmaker said that in 2003, the SC encroached on the authority of the House when it stopped the chamber from pursuing an impeachment case against then Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., who the justice committee found to have committed indiscretion in the use of Judicial Development Fund (JDF). Davide was accused of using the JDF for renovating the SC vacation cottages in Baguio City, instead of augmenting the salaries and allowances of the court judges and employees, as mandated by law. "Today, we are faced once more with the same dilemma we experienced in 2003. Once more the same Supreme Court has again encroached upon our prerogatives and power to impeach an impeachable constitutional officer, the Ombudsman," she added. — LBG/RSJ, GMANews.TV