‘Senate to work 5 days a week as impeachment court’ — Sotto

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate will work five days a week when it convenes as an impeachment court for Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, an official said on Tuesday.

Senate Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III said senators agreed at a caucus Monday to hold legislative sessions from Mondays to Thursdays in the morning and as an impeachment court in the afternoon.

“Fridays would be motion day so that it will be a total of five-days a week actually for the impeachment court and four-days a week for the legislative Senate,” Sotto told reporters.

Notably, the Senate also added one more day of legislative session “to be able to squeeze in to the schedule during the last leg of Congress” before its sine die adjournment in June, said the Majority Leader.

“Of course the legislative work of the Senate is our priority. That's why we will not relegate it to the back burner even though there is an impeachment going on,” Sotto said.

“As a matter of fact, to some members of the Senate, (a very few of them) feel that the impeachment is not that important because of the rank of the official being impeached,” he added.

Sotto said the Senate may convene as an impeachment court on May 9.

But on Wednesday, the Majority Leader said he would distribute copies of the rules of impeachment proceedings for debates on Tuesday, next week. He added he is also hoping to approve the impeachment rules before Congress takes a break next week. (report from Maila Ager, Inquirer.net)