Former Far Eastern University law dean Mel Sta. Maria supported the Senate Impeachment Court’s tactical pause in Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial on Wednesday, saying the pause was necessary to refocus the proceedings.
The sessions would resume Thursday and would be held the whole day from October 1 to 15.
Sta. Maria said the public and senator-judges should use this break to “refocus on the true, vital purpose of this impeachment trial.”
“There is a real danger that the proceeding is straying into a bad imitation of a criminal trial. This shift can lower the overall quality of the trial steering the process away from its core objective,” he said in a Facebook post.
“The case is not about finding a crime but about the fitness and trust of a public official. That is a simpler question to answer,” he added.
He said the impeachment trial is not about proving guilt beyond reasonable doubt, but about whether the evidence shows that the public official’s actions are highly questionable and irregular to the point that they destroy trust in that office.
“An official does not need to be a convicted criminal to be unfit for leadership,” he said.
He said that in determining this, simple, common sense questions just need to be asked, and there is no need for a years-long criminal trial to evaluate such questions.
“For example, when the Vice President in full public view made what appears to be a threatening remark against the President, the Vice President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, does that inspire extra-judicial killing and not the rule of law? When millions of pesos in public money were withdrawn in cash and placed in ‘gym bags,’ does that at least require a compelling reason for justification? When a Vice President should concentrate full-time on her official job, does having business interests smack of a conflict of interest?” he said.
Sta. Maria expressed frustration over the impeachment process being caught up in what many perceive as criminal trial tactics and partisan delays.
“Every day spent debating technicalities that belong in a criminal-case-like proceeding is a day stolen from the core question: does this Vice President still command the confidence required to hold public trust?” he said.
Nevertheless, he said he was encouraged by how the Impeachment Court voted to interpret the two-thirds requirement to convict to “preserve institutional function.”
He said that if the same perspective is applied to the evidence, then the trial could achieve its true purpose.