AMID unsolicited proposals swaying the senate impeachment court to consider the number corresponding to the fraction stipulated under the Constitution as basis in issuing its verdict, newly-installed Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian stood firm on the need to secure 16 senators for Vice President Sara Duterte to be ousted.
According to Gatchalian, regardless of vacancies, absences, or leadership changes, the senate will adhere to the numeric significance rather than the fraction, adding that Senator Jinggoy Estrada’s suspension will not lower the number of votes required to convict Duterte.
Responding to questions over the impact of Estrada’s 90-day suspension on the impeachment proceedings, Gatchalian said that the Constitution is pretty much detailed — concurrence of 16 senators regardless of vacancies, absences, or leadership changes.
The new Senate President explained that the constitutional threshold remains fixed because it is based on the Senate’s full membership of 24.
“Article XI, Section 3(6) of the 1987 Constitution states unequivocally that no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of all the Members of the Senate,” Gatchalian said.
Gatchalian also reiterated that the Constitution leaves no room for changing the vote requirement.
“With the Senate’s membership fixed at 24, the conviction threshold is 16 votes, and it will remain 16 votes regardless of how many senators attend the trial, which bloc controls the chamber, or who presides over the impeachment court,” he added.
The Sandiganbayan earlier imposed a 90-day preventive suspension on Estrada who is facing non-bailable plunder and graft cases in connection with the so-called flood control scandal.
Gatchalian added that the suspension also prevents Estrada from carrying out any function of a senator, including serving as a senator-judge in the impeachment trial of Duterte.
“From what I understand, pag-suspended ka as senator, kasama na rin yung being a senator judge. So the suspension…carries with it all the responsibilities as a senator, including becoming a senator-judge,” Gatchalian told reporters.
Estrada however maintains that he should be allowed to take part in the impeachment trial as a senator-judge, pending the resolution of cases filed against him.
In questioning the suspension, the detained senator argued that he was deprived of the opportunity to contest the regularity of the preliminary investigation conducted in the case.
Despite the legal questions raised by Estrada’s temporary removal from Senate duties, Gatchalian said the chamber would rely on established legal precedent and institutional practice in determining how to proceed.
“In this case, I haven’t really sat down with our legal team on how to go about it, but ang masasabi ko lang kung ano yung legal practice in the past, yun ang susundan natin,” he averred.
Gatchalian is on the right track