The number of votes needed to remove Vice President Sara Duterte from office through impeachment is anchored in the Constitution and shifts for no one, Acting Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian asserted Wednesday, dismissing any notion that shifting alliances or chamber leadership could move the bar.
That figure stands at 16. Gatchalian, who also serves as Senate President Pro Tempore, framed the point as a matter of arithmetic written directly into the country’s foundational law, not a question open to negotiation as senators jockey over how the chamber will be run.
“Article XI, Section 3(6) of the 1987 Constitution states unequivocally that no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of all the Members of the Senate. With the Senate’s membership fixed at 24, the conviction threshold is 16 votes, and it will remain 16 votes regardless of how many senators attend the trial, which bloc controls the chamber or who presides over the impeachment court,” he said.
His remarks landed as speculation grew over whether realignments in Senate leadership might bear on the outcome of the case against the vice president.
When the chamber takes up an impeachment, it transforms into a court and its members become the judges weighing the evidence. Securing two-thirds of the full Senate delivers a conviction; anything short of that hands the respondent an acquittal.
Several procedural deadlines now sit on the calendar. Lawyers for Duterte and the prosecution panel drawn from the House of Representatives must each turn in their pretrial briefs by June 15, ahead of a pretrial conference set for June 18 where the court will sort through evidentiary questions and other preliminary concerns. The trial itself is slated to open on July 6, 2026.
Gatchalian said the groundwork is unfolding on schedule and within the bounds set by constitutional and procedural rules.
“The process is on track. The rules are clear. And the constitutional threshold — 16 votes — will be faithfully observed. The Constitution is clear. Our duty is to follow the Constitution, and that is what we will do,” he said.
