THE Senate should pour its energy into its role as impeachment court instead of reviving parallel inquiries that could blur the issues, distract the public and pull attention away from the trial of Vice President Sara Z. Duterte.
House Committee on Higher and Technical Education chair Jude Acidre made the appeal when asked about moves to revive Senate hearings on the flood-control controversy, saying accountability should proceed through the proper forum now that cases have already been filed and the Ombudsman process is moving.
“To be honest, I would rather that the Ombudsman be allowed to continue with this investigation. The proper forum for this point, after all the investigations have been made, now belongs to the courts,” Acidre said in an interview on One PH’s Morning Matters.
The issue was raised as the Senate continues to deal with internal tensions ahead of Duterte’s impeachment trial, where senators will sit as judges and decide whether the Articles of Impeachment transmitted by the House are enough to convict or acquit the vice president.
“Cases have been filed. They have started to file cases against certain individuals,” Acidre noted.
Acidre said the same standard being demanded in the impeachment case should also apply to the flood-control allegations: let the evidence lead, let the process work, and avoid turning accountability into a shortcut driven by political timing.
“But I would rather that we allow the process to continue on the basis of evidence. The same discipline and the same due process that we’re also giving to the Vice President in the impeachment trial,” Acidre stressed.
For Acidre, reopening every controversy inside the Senate while the impeachment trial is about to begin risks scattering the country’s attention when the Constitution has already assigned the chamber a specific and historic duty.
“Remember, accountability cannot be done with shortcuts,” Acidre said.
He said the country has reached a point where institutions must resist the temptation to use every issue as a political weapon, especially when the public needs clarity rather than more noise.
“Shortcuts will only serve as distractions. Shortcuts will only muddle the issue,” Acidre added.
He said the Ombudsman should be allowed to do its job while the Senate focuses on the work that only the Senate can perform in the impeachment process.
“So let’s allow the Ombudsman to do his job,” Acidre pointed out.
Acidre said the impeachment trial should remain the Senate’s priority because the chamber alone has the constitutional authority to render judgment on the vice president.
“I would rather that they focus their energies on the role as senator judges. Because only the Senate has the power to either acquit or convict the vice president in an impeachment trial,” Acidre said.
The lawmaker’s remarks place the flood-control issue within a larger institutional warning: when every controversy is opened at once, the danger is that evidence becomes secondary to spectacle and public accountability becomes harder to follow.
For Acidre, the cleaner path is to let the Ombudsman handle cases already within its jurisdiction while the Senate impeachment court gives the country a trial that is orderly, focused, and worthy of the moment.
