A question of numbers
EDITORIAL |
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High court justices paved the way for the House of Representatives — or at least its justice committee — to go ahead with its move to have Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez impeached.
What is puzzling, however, in the absence of the ponencia and the dissenting opinions as of press time, is whether certain earlier rulings have been overturned with this latest Supreme Court (SC) decision.
It will be recalled that when the issue of then SC Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr’s impeachment complaint was brought before the high court, the same SC, whose ponente was — if memory serves — SC Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales and concurred in by Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and the majority of the justices — ruled that the second impeachment complaint lodged against Davide, which had the required number of House members to elevate this second complaint to the Senate, that only the first impeachment complaint — which was not even voted upon — was valid and which starts the impeachment process..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110217com1.html