Senator wants impeachment rules in plain language

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

RULES on the Ombudsman's impeachment trial should follow a basic rule: Omit needless words.

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago made this remark Tuesday, adding that rules should be purged of words like "hereinunder" to make them easier for the public to understand.

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She said the rules, which were virtually copied from the US Senate manual on impeachment, have to be updated to make them more accessible.

"The English they use is too old-fashioned," she said.

Plain language will also be helpful to the senator-judges who will hear the case. Of 23 senators, only nine are lawyers.

Santiago suggested the rules should be edited according to Elements of Style, a style guide written in 1918, and has sold more than 10 million copies by 2009.

The Elements of Style consists of 18 basic rules of composition.

William Strunk Jr., one of its authors, said "a sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences."

While Santiago wanted the rules accessible to the layman, she pushed to keep these laymen out of the actual proceedings unless they behave properly.

She said the audience should not be allowed to clap or boo during the trial.

"This is a very serious proceeding. An impeachment is traumatic not only for the accused, but it is also traumatic for the nation itself," she said.

Santiago also called to leave the trial to senator-judges and not allow coaching from the stands.

She said that during the impeachment trial of then President Joseph Ejercito Estrada, some of the senators had to be coached by legal advisers.

"If we are going to be judges, we should be independent, we should not be dictated upon by lawyers who will never be accountable for their questions or the consequences of their interpellation," she said.

Parties in the case should also be barred from using Twitter and other social networking websites, she said, saying making friends is not in the job description.

"You are trying to see to it that justice is done, and then you can let the heavens fall," she said. (Jonathan de Santos/Sunnex)