REPRESENTATIVE Corina L. Magofna has expressed concern about the Senate’s actions regarding the impeachment trial of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres.
She is reacting to Senate President Jude U. Hofschneider’s plan to proceed with the impeachment trial next week with or without a House prosecutor and/or House impeachment record.
“One has to ask the most obvious, logical, valid and common question: How will the Senate proceed with the impeachment hearing without the necessary two-party system, the defense and prosecution, and most importantly, without any impeachment record?” Magofna asked.
“It has been quite troubling these past few months with our legislative counterpart. The Senate majority has made it extremely difficult for members of the House to exercise and engage in our constitutional oath and duties during the impeachment of Governor Torres’ proceedings at the Senate level,” Magofna added.
She reiterated the House leadership’s criticism of the Senate impeachment rules.
She said the Senate president required a 24-hour notice for public comments “and unreasonably shortened the public comments portion during a Senate session” on the day the rules were scheduled for the adoption.
She said the Senate impeachment rules consisted of “unrealistic and unfair provisions; hugely one-sided that even the most seasoned attorney would find it difficult to argue and defend, which would eventually and inevitably suffer defeat.”
She also noted the “unrealistic” deadline of 48 hours given to the House clerk to resolve the deficiencies identified by the Senate Clerk.
The Senate then rejected the House clerk’s request for an extension to resolve the deficiencies, ultimately resulting in “no impeachment record,” Magofna said.
“It appears that the Senate majority engaged in a means to an end by creating rules outside the rule of law to justify the rationale of preventing the House from participating in the hearing proceedings and submission of pertinent evidence,” she added.
Magofna said she “sincerely hopes” that the Senate impeachment proceeding next week “without the proper parties involved and the necessary evidence…does not, in a practical sense, hinder our legislative progress and injure the future of our people for years to come with his act.”
The Senate president designated Magofna as House prosecutor but she, like Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez and Vice Speaker Blas Jonathan Attao, was “unable to accept or decline notice to file an appearance in this matter.”
Instead, Magofna, along with Reps. Celina R. Babauta, Leila Haveia F. Staffler, Donald M. Manglona, and Attao, filed a notice of their appearance as a collective prosecutorial unit in the Senate impeachment trial.
Based on the Senate rules, the House speaker “shall serve as the House prosecutor.”
If the speaker declines to serve as prosecutor, the Senate rules state, “then the Chairperson of the House Impeachment Committee…shall serve” as prosecutor.
If the chairperson declines to serve, “then the Senate President shall select a House member to serve as” prosecutor.
Corina Magofna
