Senate to limit visitors during Merci's impeach trial

When the impeachment trial of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez starts this coming May, the Senate will limit the entry of visitors to prevent distractions and disruptions. Senate sergeant-at-arms Jose Balajadia Jr. on Friday said he and his security men are continuously mapping out tighter security measures to address various scenarios during the trial. "We will ... limit the people that will go in there. Ayaw namin na ang mga taong pupunta doon pasigaw-sigaw sa loob ng session hall. Hindi pwede yan. Talagang maghihigpit kami," Balajadia said in an interview on dwIZ radio. (We do not want the people entering the session hall to shout or disrupt the proceedings. We will be very strict. This early I want to tell them we will be very strict on security.) Earlier, Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III indicated the impeachment trial may start as early as May 9, with senators sitting as judges. Gutierrez was impeached after a 212-46 vote, with four abstentions, in the House of Representatives before dawn last Tuesday. Present security measures at the Senate require visitors to go through an X-ray scan and to get ID cards before going to the Senate office they are visiting. Those coming in on private vehicles are also required to go through a checkpoint. Balajadia said the Senate secretariat will meet again this Monday to map out security measures. "Even before the impeachment vote at the House of Representatives, we had discussed initial possible measures. But now we'll really sit down and seriously consider everything and anticipate anything that will happen," he said. He said his security men will spend the Lenten break at the Senate to map out their security plans. — LBG, GMA News