MANILA — The Supreme Court has been asked to restore the fixed 16-vote requirement to convict Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio, bringing before the high tribunal a constitutional challenge to the Senate impeachment court’s decision to exclude senators deemed unable to participate when computing the two-thirds threshold.
Former Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez filed a 24-page petition seeking to nullify the impeachment court’s September 23 ruling and secure a temporary restraining order against its implementation.
The challenged ruling abandoned the earlier interpretation requiring 16 votes — two-thirds of the full 24-member Senate — and instead provided that the voting base would consist only of senators who remain legally and factually capable of participating in the proceedings.
Rodriguez argued that Article XI, Section 3(6) of the 1987 Constitution requires the concurrence of two-thirds of all Senate members to convict an impeached official, making 16 votes the required threshold in a 24-member chamber.
He asked the Supreme Court to “declare null and void the September 23, 2026 ruling insofar as it reduces or permits the reduction of the constitutional denominator by excluding incumbent Senators merely because they are absent, non-participating, unable to participate, beyond the coercive processes of the Senate, or otherwise deemed similarly situated.”
Rodriguez also asked the high court to affirm that the constitutional phrase “all Members of the Senate” refers to the entire 24-member chamber and cannot be altered through the impeachment court’s procedural rulings.
He sought the restoration of the July 6 ruling of impeachment presiding officer Sen. Francis Escudero, which fixed the number of votes required for conviction at 16.
“This is not merely a change in procedure. It changes the operative constitutional threshold for conviction. In essence, the Tribunal has added a qualification to the constitutional phrase: ‘all Members of the Senate’. The Constitution itself contains no such qualification,” the petition read.
Rodriguez maintained that a senator’s absence or inability to participate does not remove that senator from the constitutional membership of the chamber.
The Senate impeachment court, however, ruled that only senators legally and factually capable of participating at the time of the final vote should form the denominator from which the two-thirds requirement is computed.
Four senators have been largely absent from Duterte-Carpio’s impeachment proceedings and could be affected by the revised formula.
Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Rodante Marcoleta are detained at the Quezon City Jail while facing plunder charges, while Sen. Loren Legarda has been on extended medical leave in France and is also under investigation by the Ombudsman for plunder and graft.
Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, meanwhile, has been absent from the proceedings amid an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court in connection with the Duterte administration’s drug war.
The petition puts before the Supreme Court the central constitutional dispute over whether “all Members of the Senate” means the chamber’s full 24-member composition or only those senators legally and factually capable of participating when the impeachment court renders its verdict.
The high court’s eventual ruling could determine whether the prosecution must secure a fixed 16 votes to convict Duterte-Carpio or whether the required number may change depending on how many senators qualify to participate in the final vote./PN
