FRANCIS Escudero has been emphatic — unless he has done it for dramatic effect: There will be no impeachment trial while the Senate is adjourned. He makes it sound like it is his choice whether to convene the Senate as an impeachment court. It is not. He wants people to believe that Senate adjournment is a reason not to conduct a trial.
It is not! There is nothing in the Constitution about the legislators' self-declared recesses and adjournments. What the Constitution clearly ordains is that Congress convene on the fourth Monday of July each year and shall continue for such number of days "as it may determine until 30 days before the opening of its next regular session." Unless Mr. Escudero can read lines that the rest of the nation cannot, there is clearly enough time to hold the trial. The elections do not happen till May, and the new Congress will not convene till after that. Until that time, the present Congress is alive and well, its attempts at terminating its life sooner notwithstanding!
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