Robin Padilla, Bong Go seek SC help vs. ruling on impeachment threshold voting

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Senators Robin Padilla and Christopher “Bong” Go have filed a petition asking the Supreme Court (SC) to declare null the Senate impeachment court’s ruling on the voting threshold for Vice President Sara Duterte’s conviction.

In a petition for certiorari and prohibition, the senators and the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) asked the SC to issue a status quo ante order or a temporary restraining order directing the Impeachment court and the House of Representatives to refrain from excluding any senator from the count of “all members of the Senate” under the Constitution.

“The Constitution does not count only the Senators it finds convenient. It says ‘all,’ and ‘all’ has never meant ‘some.” Two-thirds of twenty-four is sixteen,” the petitioners said.

“This petition does not ask the Court to acquit or to convict. It asks the Court to count, and in counting, to remind every branch of government that the Constitution is not suspended when it becomes inconvenient,” they later added.

The 1987 Constitution states that "no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of all the Members of the Senate."

In September, the impeachment court voted to base the “two-thirds of votes” on the number of of senators who are capable of "legally and factually participating in the impeachment proceedings."

The petitioners asked the SC to require the concurrence of not less than 16 senators in any vote to convict.

They also asked the SC to direct the respondents to record the vote of each senator and to refrain from declaring or promulgating any judgment that is supported by fewer than 16 votes.

Aside from this, the petitioners asked the SC to declare a possible judgment convicting Duterte with less than 16 votes as null and void.

Presiding Officer Francis “Chiz” Escudero has explained that the senator-judges who are detained or suspended, who are sought by authorities whose whereabouts are unknown, who are suffering from a physical or medical incapacity, and who are beyond the coercive processes of the Senate will be excluded from the senator-judges who are qualified to vote.

Senator Rodante Marcoleta is detained over a P75-million plunder case while Senator Jinggoy Estrada is detained over a P573-million plunder charge, which is a non-bailable offense.

Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, meanwhile, has not appeared in public since his departure from the Senate premises on May 14, after authorities attempted to serve an International Criminal Court warrant against him.

Senator Loren Legarda is on an extended medical leave abroad due to a lung ailment.

The SC has recently dismissed three separate petitions against the impeachment court’s ruling on procedural grounds, including lack of standing and prematurity. —KG, GMA News