A rules dispute has surfaced in the impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte, with a jailed senator questioning who is running the trial and asking to have his vote counted despite being behind bars.
Sen. Rodante Marcoleta, in a letter of manifestation, objected to the assignment of Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero as presiding officer of the court hearing Duterte’s case. In the same document, Marcoleta pushed for his own ballot to be recognized in the trial, arguing that his imprisonment has not stripped him of his standing as a lawmaker.
Escudero confirmed receipt of the letter during the seventh trial day, telling the chamber that he and Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian had both been served the manifestation. Rather than rule on it from the bench, he set the matter aside and forwarded it to the Senate sitting as a legislative body, reasoning that any change permitting a detained member to cast a vote would require amending the court’s rules — something only the full chamber can do.
The senator anchored his request on precedent from the 2001 impeachment trial of former President Joseph Estrada. According to Escudero, Marcoleta cited a mechanism adopted during that proceeding that let senators unable to appear in person still register a vote. “During the Estrada impeachment trial, a rule was adopted—which we are confirming—that allows the Senate president to provide a mechanism by which a senator who cannot vote under any unavoidable circumstances [can] cast his vote on any matter,” Escudero said.
The presiding officer signaled a degree of openness to the idea. He indicated he was personally inclined to back Marcoleta’s position once the Senate takes it up, though he attached a condition: that no suspension order stand against the senator. “And whatever decision the Senate will have as a legislative body, the court shall implement it,” he said.
Marcoleta is not the only detained member seeking a way into the proceedings. Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano moved to let both Marcoleta and fellow detainee Sen. Jinggoy Estrada follow and take part in the trial through a special arrangement, a proposal the court has yet to rule on. Cayetano noted that Estrada may have already elevated the Sandiganbayan’s refusal to release him for the trial to the Supreme Court.
On the conviction question Marcoleta raised, Escudero has held firm that removing an impeachable official requires 16 affirmative votes. As reported by SunStar, only 21 senators are actively taking part, with Sen. Ronald dela Rosa absent while evading charges tied to the International Criminal Court’s inquiry into the drug war under former President Rodrigo Duterte.
Marcoleta is being held at the New Quezon City Jail on non-bailable plunder charges before the Sandiganbayan, which stem from the alleged failure to disclose P75 million in campaign donations, according to the Manila Bulletin. He has entered a plea of not guilty to the plunder count and to a separate charge of violating a presidential decree barring officials from accepting gifts.
