Group wants ordinary citizens’ participation in Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial

MANILA, Philippines – With the forthcoming impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, a citizen’s network vowed to monitor the proceedings and ensure that it will be “constitutional, fair, and impartial.”

Launched on Monday, June 1, the “Bantay Senado” network gathered students, academics, and other concerned citizens in Manila to lay down their actions in gearing up for Duterte’s trial, which will begin on July 6. 

For Bantay Senado, the participants of the impeachment trial are not just Duterte, the House prosecutors, and senator-judges.

“Mahalaga din po ‘yong boses ng mga ordinaryong mamamayang Pilipino, kaya ‘yon ‘yong role ng Bantay Senado, na makilahok ‘yong mga ordinaryong mamamayan sa impeachment trial,” said Cleve Arguelles, Bantay Senado convenor and spokesperson.

(The voices of ordinary Filipinos are important and that’s the role of Bantay Senado, to ensure that ordinary citizens will participate in the impeachment trial.)

The launch comes as an OCTA Research poll showed that support for the impeachment trial of the Vice President grew from 69% in March to 74% in April.

Duterte submitted on Monday her reply to the articles of impeachment against her, asking the Senate impeachment court to junk them as “they suffer from fatal constitutional, procedural, and substantive defects.”

Main agenda

Arguelles said that Bantay Senado, as a non-partisan network, is more focused on the conduct of the impeachment trial rather than taking a position on whether or not Duterte is guilty of the charges against her.

In May, the House of Representatives impeached Duterte for the second time, accusing her of culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust, and high crimes.

The action points of the citizen’s network are:

• Monitor the impeachment court
• Publish accessible summaries and analyses of the trial
• Inform and engage the public
• Pressure the Senate to be fair and impartial

Role of youth, social media

According to Arguelles, the Bantay Senado network already expects a barrage of fake news and disinformation in the lead up and during Duterte’s impeachment trial. The hope of the citizen’s network is to be an independent source of information throughout the impeachment process.

Arguelles said that Bantay Senado consists of Gen Z, millennials, and online content creators, who will be writing statements and press releases, as well as producing short video content about the trial.

He admitted that it will be a challenge for the youth members of Bantay Senado to translate the legal jargon in the trial to something that is more accessible to the public. 

Still, they are confident with the potential of their content. He said the content will be in Filipino and Bisaya to reach more audiences online.

Network activities

The Bantay Senado network listed two phases for its activities: pre-trial proceedings and trial monitoring.

For its pre-trial proceedings, the broad coalition said it will run weekly public town halls in barangays, churches, schools, and other community centers; build an online public education campaign; and lead a nationwide signature campaign for a fair and impartial impeachment trial.

Arguelles said that they will mount town halls and community visits also in the Visayas and Mindanao, where Duterte continues to have strong support. 

For the trial proper in July, it will conduct the following:

• Deploy trained observers
• Set up community watch venues
• Publish daily trial summaries and analyses
• Maintain a live public scorecard of senator-judges, prosecutors, and the Vice President
• Campus and community visits

Arguelles said that the network’s research committee, which is composed of lawyers and political experts, will come up with the scorecard to track senators who have shown bias or already pre-judged the trial.

“Tingin namin, kapag merong sustained public attention, may nagmamatyag po sa kanila, mas madali po sa kanila na magampanan nila ‘yong kanilang tungkulin bilang impartial senator-judges,” he said.

“Di naman po kami mananawagan na di na sila makasali sa impeachment trial pero magiging panawagan namin ay nakabantay ‘yong mga mamamayan,” he added.

(We think if there is sustained public attention, if there will be people monitoring them, it will be easier for them to do their duty as impartial senator-judges. We will not call for their removal from the trial but our call is that the public is vigilant.)

For now, Arguelles said the Bantay Senado network’s target is monitoring the impeachment trial but he said volunteers have already expressed desire to be a regular citizen’s watchdog of the Senate.

The Senate impeachment court is led by Senate President Ala Peter Cayetano as presiding officer. He was installed as the new Senate leader in a surprise coup held on the same day the House of Representatives impeached Duterte for the second time. – Rappler.com