[LEGAL NOTES] Legal implications of continuing with the impeachment proceedings for the House of Representatives

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Today (September 28, 2010), the House Committee on Justice is expected to continue to perform its constitutional mandate and to tackle the status quo ante order issued by the Supreme Court.

Will the committee be cited for contempt? I think citing the House Committee on Justice in contempt of court is adding insult to a Constitutional injury.

The matter of impeachment is purely a political question which is not subject to judicial inquiry.  The Supreme Court does not have the power even to cite the House Committee on Justice in contempt of court should it choose to proceed with the impeachment proceedings.

[LEGAL NOTES] Impeaching Merceditas: Status unknown

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Assuming that the House Committee on Justice will simply tackle the first complaint and leave the second complaint to the rulings of the Supreme Court, or assuming that the House Committee on Justice, proceeds with the hearings on the basis of an ad cautelam proceeding, will the Supreme Court cite the HCJ in contempt of court?

When the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court over the Committee on Justice of the House of Representative is being questioned; when the Supreme Court does not have the right to pass upon the sufficiency of the form and substance of the complaints; when the Supreme Court does not have the right to pass upon the propriety of having two impeachment complaints: the Supreme Court does not have the power even to cite the Committee on Justice in contempt of court. 

[LEGAL NOTES] Impeaching Ombudsman Gutierrez in the 15th Congress

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This document seeks to answer the following questions: 1. Whether there is legal basis for the filing of an impeachment complaint against Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez; 2. Whether the same allegations that were filed during 14th Congress can be used as the basis of a new complaint, and; 3. Whether double jeopardy is applicable.