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Convene impeach court first: Sen. Joel Villanueva, during Tuesday’s plenary session, reiterates that the Senate lacks power to dismiss an impeachment complaint and has no constitutional duty to proceed to trial as proposed by Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa. Villanueva said the Senate must convene first as an impeachment court to act on the Articles of Impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte. The senator also maintained that the power of initial determination of the complaints belongs to the House of Representatives. “Mr. President, we’re members of the House for quite a long time and we talk about it all the time. That it is the sole power of the House to determine if the impeachment or the Articles of Impeachment that will be transmitted to the Senate,” Villanueva said, adding that the Senate, on the other hand, is to act as an impeachment court and not as a “gatekeeper” to determine whether the complaint is sufficient in forms and substance. “Impeachment, Mr. President, is not a political discretion but a constitutional mechanism rooted in the principle that public office is a public trust... 1987 Constitution provides that public officers and employees must at all times be accountable to the people. This duty is not suspended, nullified or extinguished by the expiration of the legislative calendar or the transition to a new Congress,” he added. (Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau)