Sawt Falasteen - Marcos says no influence over Philippine VP's impeachment trial

Sara Duterte was impeached on Wednesday for "violation of the constitution, betrayal of public trust, graft and corruption, and other high crimes".

After the lower house approved the petition, the Senate must convene a tribunal to try the vice president. If convicted, she will be removed from her post and barred from public office.

In his first comments since the impeachment, Marcos said Duterte's trial date remains solely at the discretion of the Senate.

"It's up to them how they decide to have the trial," he told reporters.

While Duterte's one-time alliance with Marcos has imploded spectacularly over the past year, the president swatted down any suggestion he played a role in her impeachment process.

"There is an implication that somehow I am giving them (Congress) orders. That is not the case at all. We are independent of each other," he said. "You give me too much credit."

Senate President Francis Escudero told reporters earlier in the day that Duterte's trial would probably not finish before the next congress takes over in July.

This could effectively mean Duterte's tribunal will be composed of entirely different membership at the start and close of the trial.

It will likely "extend into the 20th Congress. That's almost a sure thing now," he said.

Speaking at a separate press conference, House Deputy Majority Leader Lorenz Defensor agreed the trial "may cross over to the next Congress", whose members will be determined by countrywide elections on May 12.

- Legal challenge? -

The set up of this tribunal could give Duterte ammunition to challenge her impeachment's legality, said Dennis Coronacion, head of the political science department at Manila's University of Santo Tomas.

Because an impeachment voted on by sitting lawmakers could be tried by an incoming class, there was "speculation this will give the vice president a legal remedy and allow her to challenge that in the Supreme Court."

The potential election of pro-Duterte senators to the body could also eliminate the two-thirds majority needed to secure a conviction, he added.

Duterte, who has yet to publicly comment on her impeachment, was widely tipped to succeed her father Rodrigo as president in 2022 elections but stepped aside to back Marcos and later ran for vice president on his ticket.

But the alliance has since imploded. In November, she delivered an expletive-laden speech saying she had ordered someone to kill Marcos if she herself was assassinated.

She later denied that her comments constituted a death threat, saying she had only been expressing "consternation" with the administration's failures.

L.Hussein--SF-PST