Abstract :
This article examines the role of impeachment in the Philippines and the United States as a constitutional mechanism to remove public officers who have violated their mandate to promote the welfare of the people from whom they derived their powers. Using the legal approach, it discusses the meaning and origin of impeachment, the legal basis, the impeachable officers and grounds of impeachment, the constitutional procedure, and the Philippine and American experiences on the impeachment of the highest government official - the President. It concludes that the institutionalization of impeachment in the Constitutions of both countries is an affirmation of their faith in the rule of law. However, the impeachment of their Presidents as to the initiation, trial, and judgment reveals the partisan alignment as indicated by the pattern of voting by the members of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Loyalty to the Presidents, defined in terms of political party affiliation, characterized the nature of impeachment
