Vice President Sara Duterte can now be convicted with fewer than 16 votes, and two figures with deep ties to the Senate and the 1987 Constitution say the impeachment court acted within its powers in making that possible.
Senator-judges voted on Wednesday, September 23, to set aside presiding officer Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero’s July 6 ruling, which had fixed the conviction threshold at two-thirds of all 24 senators. The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported the vote at 13-1, with Escudero as the lone dissenter and six Duterte allies abstaining. Under the new rule, the constitutional phrase “all members of the Senate” now covers only senators who remain legally and factually able to take part in the proceedings when the vote is taken.
Four senators currently fall outside that count. Estrada and Marcoleta are in detention over plunder and related charges, which GMA News said stem from alleged flood control irregularities and undeclared campaign donations, respectively. Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa has stayed away amid an International Criminal Court arrest order, and Sen. Loren Legarda has been absent since early August on medical leave. That leaves 20 senator-judges. According to the Inquirer, Escudero said two-thirds of 20, or 13.33, must be rounded up, putting the number of votes needed to convict at 14. The court will still decide, based on competent and sufficient evidence, whether a particular senator falls under any of the grounds for exclusion.
Tulfo, who brought the motion to revisit the July ruling, told reporters that the chamber had not reduced the two-thirds requirement. Impeachment court spokesperson Regie Tongol, a lawyer, made the same point in an interview with “Political Beat” on One News, saying the court only interpreted which senators belong in the voting baseline.
Former Senate president Franklin Drilon, speaking on One News’ “Storycon,” said the two-thirds should be computed from senators who are available and within reach of the Senate’s compulsory jurisdiction.
Christian Monsod, a member of the commission that drafted the 1987 Constitution, told the same program on Wednesday that senators were on firm ground.
“They are correct. The denominator can be changed,” Monsod said.
He pointed to the detained senators, whose cases he said strip them of the substance of their office. “The plunder law says that all their power and rights as senator are suspended. In other words, they are only senators in name and not in substance,” he said.
“Therefore, they should not be included in the count of the denominator,” Monsod said.
