Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian said Friday that the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte will proceed as scheduled, even as petitions questioning the impeachment court’s new conviction threshold sit before the Supreme Court.
“Tuloy. Wala namang TRO [galing the Supreme Court] so tuloy [lang],” Gatchalian said, according to GMA News.
At least two petitions have reached the high court challenging the ruling, which no longer counts absent senators when computing the votes required to convict Duterte.
The change came through a motion by Senator-judge Erwin Tulfo, filed after four senator-judges had been unable to attend the proceedings for different reasons.
Two of them, Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Rodante Marcoleta, are in detention on plunder and related charges. Estrada is linked to alleged irregularities involving P573 million in flood control funds, and Marcoleta to P75 million in allegedly undeclared campaign donations. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa has gone into hiding while facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court over his alleged role in deaths linked to the drug war under former President Rodrigo Duterte. Senator Loren Legarda is abroad on extended medical leave for a lung ailment.
Social media posts have claimed that the Senate minority intends to skip the trial in protest of the threshold ruling. Asked about the claims in a chance interview, Gatchalian said no such plan had reached him.
“Well, wala naman akong naririnig na ganyan,” he said.
He pointed to the minority senators’ continued presence in other chamber business as a sign that they had not walked away.
“In fact, mga members of the [Senate] minority andito sa budget hearing, nasa Commission on Appointments, so wala naman ako naririnig na ganyan,” Gatchalian said.
The new threshold passed with 13 senators voting in favor and one against. Six senators did not take part in the vote, all of them members of the minority.
