DEPUTY Speaker Janette L. Garin of Iloilo on Wednesday urged the public not to be alarmed by legal challenges arising from the Senate leadership dispute, stressing that constitutional processes remain intact and that there is no justification for leaving the impeachment proceedings unfinished.
Garin made the statement amid concerns that a petition filed before the Supreme Court (SC) could delay or disrupt the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Z. Duterte.
“We should not confuse legal disagreement with constitutional paralysis,” Garin said.
The faction led by former Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano has turned to the SC in an effort to challenge the recent leadership shake-up in the Senate and restore the chamber’s previous leadership structure.
In an 87-page petition, the group asked the High Court to issue a status quo ante order that would reinstate Cayetano as Senate President, Sen. Loren Legarda as Senate President Pro Tempore, and restore committee chairmanships and other positions to their status before June 3.
The petitioners argued that SC intervention is necessary to stop what they described as alleged “mob rule” and to reestablish order and institutional stability in the Senate amid the continuing leadership dispute.
Garin emphasized that each institution of government has a distinct constitutional role to perform and that the existence of a legal dispute does not prevent those institutions from carrying out their respective duties.
“The Supreme Court has its role. The Senate has its role. The House has fulfilled its role and is ready to prosecute its case before whomever holds the gavel of the impeachment court. Each institution can perform its constitutional duty without undermining the others. That is how a functioning democracy works,” she said.
According to Garin, the central issue for the public is not the political disputes surrounding the process but the need to hear the evidence and arrive at the truth.
“What the public wants is simple: let the evidence be presented, let the defense respond, and let the truth come out,” she said.
Garin warned that the greater risk to public trust lies not in allowing the trial to proceed, but in allowing constitutional processes to be indefinitely delayed.
“The greatest threat to public confidence is not a trial. It is the perception that accountability can be postponed indefinitely,” she said.
The deputy speaker noted that Filipinos have waited a long time for the impeachment proceedings to reach the trial stage and deserve to see the process carried through to its conclusion.
“There is no excuse to leave the process unfinished,” Garin said.
“The greater danger to public confidence is not that the trial proceeds. The greater danger is if legitimate constitutional processes are endlessly delayed or left hanging and important questions are never answered,” Garin said.
She said the public deserves a definitive resolution based on facts, evidence, and the rule of law.
“The Filipino people deserve closure. They have already waited a long time for this process to reach trial, for questions to be answered, and for the process to be followed through to its full conclusion,” Garin said.
“The Filipino people deserve a resolution based on evidence and law,” Garin added.
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