BATANGAS Rep. Gerville “Jinky Bitrics” Luistro on Thursday said the House Committee on Justice is resolute and prepared to defend its solid and unanimous finding of probable cause against Vice President Sara Z. Duterte, stressing that the panel now moves forward with the responsibility of upholding and advancing the case it has formally endorsed.
That shift in role comes after the committee’s unanimous vote on probable cause, which placed the case on the path to plenary action and, if affirmed by the House, eventual trial in the Senate.
“Now I can officially say that the Justice Committee has a stand, and the stand is for the probable cause,” Luistro, who chairs the panel, said during an interview with GMA 7’s Unang Hirit.
“From this day forward, our mandate should be able to defend the determination of probable cause by the Justice Committee,” Luistro, a lawyer, said.
“And if this will be affirmed by the plenary, our mandate will continue and that is to prosecute the Vice President until her conviction in the trial by the Senate,” Luistro added.
Luistro explained that this new posture grew out of the panel’s earlier role as a body tasked only to examine the evidence and determine whether probable cause existed.
“The mandate is very simple, to determine whether or not probable cause exists,” Luistro said.
“After the voting yesterday, nanalo na ang probable cause, as a matter of fact it was a unanimous vote,” Luistro added.
She said that during the clarificatory hearings, the committee had taken care to remain impartial because it was acting in a manner similar to a preliminary investigation.
“And I wish to add that in my capacity as chair, we cannot stand for either party,” Luistro said.
“We stood for the process,” Luistro added.
“During the clarificatory hearing of the Justice Committee, impartial tayo, independent tayo because we acted as investigators in a proceeding akin to a preliminary investigation,” Luistro said.
Luistro also rejected claims that outside pressure was being exerted on lawmakers’ staff to line up support for the impeachment process, saying she herself had not encountered anything of the sort.
“In as far as I am concerned I beg to disagree with that,” Luistro said.
“Wala po akong nae-encounter na tumatawag na sinuman maging sa akin o sa aking chief of staff concerning the support to this impeachment process,” Luistro added.
She then addressed the defense team’s claim that the proceedings were unconstitutional, saying the committee had expected such attacks from the start and had prepared to keep moving unless the courts explicitly ordered otherwise.
“They can always say that. They can always attack the constitutionality of the proceedings before the Justice Committee,” Luistro said.
“As a matter of fact we anticipated that since day 1 of our proceeding,” Luistro added.
Luistro noted that the legal pushback has not been limited to petitions before the Supreme Court, but has also included criminal complaints against some committee members, including herself.
“Andami na nga ng petitions na nakabinbin sa Supreme Court. Nag file pa nga sila ng criminal actions against four members of the Justice Committee and that includes myself,” Luistro said.
But she stressed that none of those filings changes the committee’s constitutional obligation while no restraining order or injunction is in place.
“Anticipated namin yan pero ang stand ng Committee so long as there is no TRO, so long as there is no injunction, our constitutional duty is to proceed with this impeachment process,” Luistro said.
