Six minority senator-judges refused to vote on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, when the Senate impeachment court changed how many votes are needed to convict Vice President Sara Duterte. Sen. Imee Marcos told reporters in an ambush interview that the group had decided together not to take part. She said they still regard the court’s interpretation of the voting threshold as unconstitutional.
Presiding Officer Chiz Escudero named the six who did not vote: Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, Pia Cayetano, Christopher “Bong” Go, Imee Marcos, Robin Padilla and Camille Villar.
Mark Villar was the only member of the bloc to break ranks. Philstar.com reported that he was the lone minority senator seen in the plenary hall when proceedings resumed after the lunch break. Rappler reported that he voted in favor of lowering the threshold.
With the six absent, the court voted 13-1 to overturn Escudero’s July 6 ruling, which had fixed the requirement at 16 votes, or two-thirds of the 24-member Senate. Escudero cast the only vote against the change. The two-thirds requirement will now be computed only from senators who are legally and factually able to take part in the trial. Excluded from that count are senators who are detained, suspended or otherwise barred from performing their duties, fugitives whose whereabouts are unknown, and those who are medically incapacitated.
The boycott came hours after the minority lost its bid to stop the vote altogether. Before the lunch break, Alan Peter Cayetano challenged the court’s authority to take up the threshold at that stage of the trial. “We are raising a point of order of the power of the impeachment court to raise this issue at this time,” he said. He argued that the question went to the court’s jurisdiction and should have been settled when the trial opened. He asked the senator-judges to leave the constitutional question to the Supreme Court instead of reinterpreting the threshold in the middle of the trial.
The bloc voted together on that challenge and lost. “With 13 affirmative votes, six negative votes, one abstention, the appeal is lost,” Escudero declared. The same six senators who later stayed away voted to uphold the challenge. Mark Villar abstained.
Alan Peter Cayetano and Pia Cayetano had signaled their exit before the vote. Both said they would not take part in deciding the threshold because they believe the Supreme Court should resolve it.
The minority’s walkout left the vote to 14 senator-judges. The dispute began with Sen. Erwin Tulfo’s September 8 appeal, which cited the prolonged absence of four senators: Loren Legarda, Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, Rodante Marcoleta and Jinggoy Estrada. Estrada and Marcoleta are detained on plunder charges, and dela Rosa is hiding to avoid an International Criminal Court warrant. Legarda has been on medical leave since August 3.
Escudero said he disagreed with the result but would treat it as binding on the court. “The presiding officer, after all, is not the court,” he said.
Duterte’s defense team has also opposed the change. Defense counsel Michael Poa argued that the July 6 ruling was not open to appeal and that nothing had happened since then to justify revisiting it.
