By Wilnard Bacelonia | Philippine News Agency
The Senate Impeachment Court on Wednesday overturned its earlier ruling requiring 16 votes to convict Vice President Sara Duterte, adopting instead a formula that will count only senators who are legally and factually capable of participating when judgment is rendered.
By a 13-1 vote, with six senator-judges not participating, the court granted Senator-judge Erwin Tulfo’s appeal challenging Presiding Officer Francis Escudero’s July 6 interpretation that the constitutional requirement of two-thirds of “all the Members of the Senate” meant 16 votes based on a 24-member chamber.
Senator-judge Tulfo raised the issue on Sept. 8 amid questions over whether senators unable to participate should remain part of the voting base.
Under the new controlling ruling, the denominator will exclude senators who are detained or suspended or otherwise legally restrained from performing their functions; sought by authorities with unknown whereabouts; physically or medically incapacitated; beyond the Senate’s coercive processes; or similarly situated.
“The phrase ‘all members of the Senate’ shall refer to those members who, at the time of the vote, remain legally and factually capable of participating in the proceedings,” Sen. Escudero said in restating the ruling adopted by the court.
Senator-judges Alan Peter Cayetano, Pia Cayetano, Bong Go, Imee Marcos, Camille Villar, and Robin Padilla did not participate in the threshold vote.
Sen. Escudero cast the lone negative vote.
Although he disagreed with the majority, Sen. Escudero said he would implement the ruling in succeeding proceedings.
“The presiding officer, after all, is not the court. He is merely the custodian of the process, not the proprietor of its outcome,” he said.
“This is the essence of democracy—that disagreement be preserved without obstruction and that lawful result be obeyed without resentment,” he added.
The ruling does not automatically set a new numerical threshold.
Sen. Escudero said the impeachment court must first determine, based on “competent and sufficient evidence,” whether any senator falls within the five categories for exclusion.
The remaining qualified members will then form the denominator from which the two-thirds requirement will be calculated.
The court also settled a separate mathematical question raised during Wednesday’s oral arguments: any fractional result will be rounded up to the next whole vote, even when the fraction is below 0.5.
Sen. Escudero cited as an example a 20-member denominator, where two-thirds is 13.33. Since 13 votes would fall below the constitutional requirement, 14 votes would be needed to convict.
The presiding officer also limited the ruling to Vice President Duterte’s trial, declaring it pro hac vice, or “for this occasion” only.
“This is a ruling, not an amendment of the rules,” Sen. Escudero said, adding that it would have no binding effect on future impeachment courts and could only serve as “persuasive guidance.”
The Sept. 23 vote followed a two-week review that included the opinions of amici curiae and oral arguments from the prosecution and defense on how the constitutional phrase “all the Members of the Senate” should be applied.
The new formula will govern the eventual conviction vote on the articles of impeachment against VP Duterte unless subsequently altered through judicial or other lawful proceedings.
