COMMISSION on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Ma. Gracia Cielo “Grace” Padaca moved to terminate the proceedings against her at the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan on the grounds that she has to be impeached first before a criminal case against her can proceed.

In a seven-page motion, the Comelec commissioner pointed out that members of constitutional commissions like Comelec and the Office of the Ombudsman must first be removed by impeachment. After being removed, only then a member of constitutional office can face criminal or administrative case, she raised.

She pointed out that in malversation, if an accused is found guilty, he would be perpetually disqualified from holding public office. If applied to her, she could be unseated as a poll member without affording impeachment process.

Should that happen, it will “run counter to the Constitution and settled jurisprudence,” her lawyers from the Angara Abello Concepcion Regala and Cruz (Accra) Law office said.

“The Ombudsman or his deputies must first be removed from office via the constitutional route of impeachment under Section 2 and 3 of Article 11 of the 1987 Constitution. Should the tenure of the Ombudsman be thus terminated by impeachment, he may then be held to answer either criminally or administratively,” the resolution read, citing Supreme Court ruling.

“Proceeding with the cases with the penalty imposable [with perpetual disqualification from office] will be an impractical and futile exercise,” it added.

The defense urged the court to suspend the trial until an “appropriate proceeding [like] impeachment, has been commenced and terminated.”

Padaca stands charged for allegedly granting P25 million to the Economic Development for Western Isabela and Northern Luzon Foundation, Inc., a non-government organization, under the Priority Hybrid Rice Program in 2006 when she was then a governor.