2 senators lead new bid vs trial threshold

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate impeachment court’s ruling that reduced the number of votes needed to convict or acquit Vice President Sara Duterte in her impeachment trial is being challenged again in the Supreme Court, this time by her allies from the chamber and from her father’s political party.

Senators Robinhood Padilla and Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go and officers of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) filed a petition for certiorari and prohibition on Sept. 29, a day before the high court dismissed three earlier petitions challenging the same Senate ruling. It was released to the media only on Wednesday.

Padilla and Go are both senator-judges in the impeachment trial. The other petitioners from the PDP-Laban were Chair and former Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, lawyer Jimmy Bondoc, and actor Philip Salvador. Lawyers Israelito Torreon, Ferdinand Topacio and Resci Rizada-Nolasco also joined the petition.

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‘Grave abuse of discretion’

They asked the court to stop the Senate impeachment court from enforcing its Sept. 23 ruling, calling it a “grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction.”

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The Senate, voting 13-1, ruled that only senators capable of participating in the trial may be counted in determining the two-thirds vote required for conviction. The ruling effectively lowered the threshold from 16 to 14 votes if six senators remain unable to participate.

The petitioners argued that the Constitution requires two-thirds of all 24 senators, regardless of whether some are absent from the proceedings.

“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,” they said.

Article XI, Section 3(6) of the 1987 Constitution provides that “no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of all members of the Senate.”

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The petitioners said the issue was already ripe for judicial review because senators were being required to participate under a rule they considered unconstitutional.

“Ripeness does not require petitioners to await the very harm the Constitution was designed to prevent,” they said.

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They also rejected the possibility that the challenge was premature, saying every ruling on who may be counted and the eventual impeachment vote would be made under the disputed formula.

The latest petition came after the Supreme Court on Sept. 30 dismissed similar petitions filed by former Executive Secretary Victor Rodriguez, constitutional lawyer Ernesto Francisco Jr. and disbarred lawyer Berteni Causing, citing procedural grounds, including lack of standing and prematurity.

In a statement Wednesday, the latest petitioners said their case was different because Padilla and Go were sitting senator-judges whose “own votes, seats, and oaths are directly affected by the ruling.”

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PDP-Laban also said Senators Rodante Marcoleta and Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, whom it considers members or active members, were among those excluded from the count. Other senators potentially left out are Loren Legarda, who is on extended medical leave, and Jinggoy Estrada, who is detained on plunder charges. /cb