Belmonte: House members to assert impeach duty before SC

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and other members of the Lower House are set to file an intervention before the Supreme Court to strengthen their stand that the chamber has the constitutional duty to hear the impeachment complaints against Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez. “That intervention will bolster the arguments of the (House) – although hopefully, we'll not be a repetition," Belmonte told reporters during his weekly press conference. The Speaker said he and some other House members will file the intervention before October 5, the date set for the oral arguments on the issue. Since the SC order is only for the House justice committee, other members of the House are not barred from intervening on the case. “I, myself, or some members or congressmen who are not members of the committee on justice [will] intervene also and make our own statement. [Since it’s just] intervention… [you don’t have a] deadline, so that should happen today, tomorrow, or Monday. Remember, the oral arguments will be on Tuesday, October 5… [so we will submit it] before that," he said. The House is expected to file its comment to the high court’s status quo ante order on Thursday, through the Office of the Solicitor General and retired SC justice Vicente Mendoza. Belmonte refused to divulge the content of the reply but said it will reflect the views and sentiments expressed by the House committee on justice earlier. (See: House panel defies SC on Ombudsman's impeachment) Despite the panel’s decision to assert the House’s constitutional duty, it cannot hold any hearing on the impeachment complaints against Gutierrez immediately, because the chamber’s priority is to deliberate in the plenary, from October 4 until October 14, the P1.6 trillion proposed national budget for 2011. Belmonte expects the chamber to approve on second reading the proposed budget before Congress goes on a three-week recess from October 15 until November 7. The two-house legislature will resume session on November 8. The Speaker hastened to add that the delay in the impeachment proceedings is not due to some inaction by the House justice committee. “These circumstances have nothing to do with the committee. It is applicable to everybody that starting Monday, we must concentrate on the budget," he said. He added: “The world does not revolve around this case. There are many other issues. [As] Speaker, I have to look at it at this view that we have many, many things [we are attending to in the] House. Although, that is a super important one involving some constitutional issues." Belmonte said he wants the session break to be a cooling-off period, as he expressed hope that the High Tribunal will be able to resolve the matter before the session resumes. “That's a nice cooling period. [It’s too] hyped… there's a real impasse but I hope that impasse will be cleared by the fact that there will be a filing of comments, the filing of replies to those comments, etcetera, and the oral arguments. All of those, I’m very sure more or less will calm down the situation," he said.—JV, GMANews.TV