Senate minority planning to boycott impeachment? Gatchalian responds

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Rumors of the Senate Minority supposedly planning to boycott the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte next week have been making rounds on social media.

However, Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian said Friday that "he has not heard of it."

“Well, wala naman akong naririnig na ganyan,” Gatchalian said in a chance interview.

(I did not hear anything of that sort.)

“In fact, mga members of the [Senate] minority andito sa budget hearing, nasa Commission on Appointments, so wala naman ako naririnig na ganyan,” Gatchalian added.

(Members of the Senate minority are even here now for the budget hearing and the Commission on Appointments [meeting], so I haven’t heard of such,” Gatchalian added.

The supposed planned absence of the minority senators allegedly stems from the Senate impeachment court’s ruling on the threshold needed to convict Vice President Sara Duterte by excluding the absent Senators.

There were 13 Senators who voted in favor of new threshold, while one voted no. Six others did not participate in the voting, all of whom belong to the Senate minority.

At least two petitions against the new threshold have been since been filed before the Supreme Court.

Gatchalian, meanwhile, assured that such petitions won't affect the scheduled impeachment trial.

"Tuloy. Wala namang TRO [galing the Supreme Court] so tuloy [lang]," he added.

(The impeahcment trial will proceed. There is no TRO from the Supreme Court so it will proceed.)

It was Senator judge Erwin Tulfo who made the motion to change the threshold, given that four Senator judges have been absent from impeachment trial proceedings due to varying reasons.

Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Rodante Marcoleta are detained on plunder and other related charges due to their alleged involvement in flood control (P573 million) and undeclared campaign donations (P75 million), respectively.

Senator Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa, on the other hand, is in hiding amid a standing warrant of arrest issued against him by the International Criminal Court due to his alleged involvement in the drug war deaths during the Rodrigo Duterte administration.

Senator Loren Legarda, for her part, is on an extended medical leave abroad due to a lung ailment. —VAL, GMA News