Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson on Friday, August 8, cleared insinuations that he “played safe” during the August 6 plenary session which tackled whether or not to archive the Articles of Impeachment for the Vice President.
This, after he emerged as the lone abstainee with the upper chamber of Congress voting 19-4-1 in favor of archiving the articles of impeachment.
“I did not ‘play safe.’ Rather, I am acting out of respect for the Supreme Court.” Lacson said in a TV interview.
He voted ‘Yes’ to the Motion filed by Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto III to table the articles of impeachment. According to Lacson, this motion was compliant to the ruling of the Supreme Court (SC) considering that there is still a motion for reconsideration (MR).
In July, the SC ruled that the articles of impeachment filed by the House of Representatives before the Senate were “unconstitutional” due to the violation of the one-year ban on filing of impeachment cases.
Prior to the Senate vote to archive the articles of impeachment, the House filed an MR before the SC to appeal the High Court’s decision.
“Out of respect and deference doon sa Korte Suprema, eh kung sa halimbawang nag reverse [ang Supreme Court decision] dahil sa MR, magbobotahan nanaman kami para i-revive,” he added.
(Out of respect and deference to the Supreme Court, in the event that the decision was reversed due to the MR, we would still have to vote for the [Articles of Impeachment] to be revived)
Lacson said that he will refrain from commenting on the merits of the case as he is not discounting the possibility that the high court may rule favorably on the motion for reconsideration.
