Impeachment in the Philippines
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Impeachment in the Philippines is an expressed power of the Congress of the Philippines to formally charge a serving government official with an impeachable offense. After being impeached by the House of Representatives, the official is then tried in the Senate. If convicted, the official is removed from office. Impeachment followed by conviction is often the only way to forcibly remove a sitting elected official. While "impeachment" is often used to refer to the entire process of removing an official from office, it properly only refers to the indictment stage in the House, not the trial stage in the Senate.
Under the current Constitution, an official can be impeached if one third of the House votes in favor. Since it takes only a simple majority to set the agenda or to adjourn the House, it can be difficult for a minority of one third to bring a vote and impeach an official.
The Constitution also limits the number of impeachment complaints that can be filed against an official to one per year. There has been controversy over what counts as an impeachment complaint. While some argued that for a complaint to count against the limit it must be voted on, and others have proposed other interpretations, the House has decided that any complaint filed fulfills the quota regardless of how well-formed it is or who filed it. Therefore, supporters of a vulnerable official can file a weak, flawed, or unconstitutional complaint, thereby using up the quota and protecting that official from impeachment for that year. There has also been debate about whether a year should be a calendar year, say 2006, or a full 12-month period. For a good example of how this limit works in practice, examine the attempts to impeach President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
While the Philippine impeachment procedure parallels the United States of America's impeachment procedure, the two procedures differ in two significant ways: the percentage needed to impeach and the numerical limit on impeachment procedures. In the U.S., a majority of the House of Representatives is needed to impeach and there is no limit on the number of impeachment complaints. The Philippines was a colony of the United States.
Only one president of the Philippines has been impeached, Joseph Estrada. His trial was never completed because of Edsa II, also known as People Power II.
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[edit] Impeaching officials
- Any citizen with an endorsement of a member of the House of Representative may file charges.
- The House Committee on Justice will decide by majority vote if the complaint has substance.
- The House of Representatives will vote to impeach the official. A one-third vote is needed. If the vote passes, the complaint will become the "Articles of Impeachment" and the House will appoint prosecutors who may or may not be members of the House.
- The Senate will then try the impeached official. Conviction requires a two-thirds vote.
- Upon conviction, the official will be removed from office. Criminal charges may be filed.
[edit] Notes
- If the President of the Philippines is on trial, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court shall preside but not vote.
[edit] Impeachable officials
- President of the Philippines
- Vice-President of the Philippines
- Justices of the Supreme Court of the Philippines
- Members of the Constitutional Commissions: the Commission on Elections, Civil Service Commission and the Commission on Audit
- The Ombudsman
Other government officials are removed via other means. Appointed officials can be fired by the president, while local officials can be removed via a recall election. Members of Congress can eject a member for "disorderly behavior."
