MANILA, Philippines — Congressmen voted on Tuesday to defy the Supreme Court (SC) status quo ante order on two impeachment complaints against Ombudsman Merceditas N. Gutierrez.

But the High Tribunal said the status quo ante order it issued will remain in effect despite the decision of the House Committee on Justice to continue with the proceedings.

Court Administrator and SC Spokesman Jose Midas Marquez said they were surprised to learn that the House committee voted to proceed with the impeachment case against Gutierrez, effectively defying the High Court’s order

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, however, downplayed the committee decision as a mere reiteration of the House’s position that the High Court cannot interfere in the impeachment proceedings in the meantime.

Belmonte said that since the justice panel did not hold impeachment hearings against Gutierrez, there is no defiance of the SC directive.

“They did not contravene the status quo order of the SC, because the status quo order of the SC referred to actually hearing the impeachment complaint which is to say the evidence, the affidavits, if any, and so forth which they did not do,” said Belmonte.

Voting 33 for and 14 against, the House Committee on Justice approved a motion “not to abdicate” its constitutional duty to conduct hearings and submit its report and resolution to the House plenary within 60 days from the referral of the complaint.

The 14 consisted of solons representing majority and minority blocs, many of them vowing to boycott impeachment proceedings that would defy the SC decision. Among them were Reps. Rufus Rodriguez (PMP, Cagayan de Oro City) and Simeon Datumanong (Lakas, Maguindanao).

Supporters of the motion all belonged to the majority who had been showing up in full force to support the impeachment proceedings for two separate complaints. Among those present were Deputy Speaker Erin Tañada, Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales, Senior Deputy Majority Leaders Janette Garin, and Rodolfo Fariñas.

However, despite the overwhelming support to ignore the SC directive, there appeared to be ambivalence on the part of the committee chairman, Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupaz Jr. who admitted to reporters that consultation with the House leadership will be conducted.

Earlier, Belmonte vowed to heed the SC ruling for a temporary halt to the proceedings and the observance of the status quo order starting from the time the two impeachment complaints were referred to the justice panel.

The status quo ante order was the High Court’s reaction to Gutierrez who petitioned the judiciary to stop the justice committee from considering two complaints, separately filed by Akbayan and Bayan Muna, for being “unconstitutional” and opposed to the previous SC decision on the Francisco case.

“The rule of law has been discarded,” said Rodriguez following the voting that turned down his appeal for compliance to the SC directive.

Rodriguez said holding hearings in defiance of the SC order could spark a constitutional crisis.

In arguing for the continuation of the impeachment proceedings against Gutierrez, Fariñas warned his colleagues that heeding the High Court ruling would mean “emasculating the power of impeachment” vested in the Lower House.

In the motion filed by Tañada and 16 other committee members, it was stressed by the solons that the issuance of the status quo ante order on September 14 was considered as an “undue interference and a clear infringement of the constitutional mandate of the justice panel.”

Exercise of judicial power
But Marquez said SC committed no violation of the law when it issued the order against a co-equal branch of government, saying it was “in pursuance of the duty of the Court.”

“The issuance of the status quo ante order was an exercise of judicial power, which resides in the Supreme Court. Under Section 1, Article 8 of the Constitution, judicial power includes the duty of the court to determine whether there is grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of any branch or instrumentality of the government,” he explained.