The Senate impeachment court’s new voting formula changes the senators who will be counted in determining the verdict in Vice President Sara Duterte’s trial, but does not reduce the constitutional requirement of a two-thirds vote, Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian and Senator-judge Risa Hontiveros said Wednesday.
The impeachment court earlier adopted a new controlling rule under which only senators who remain legally and factually capable of participating at the time of the verdict will be included in the voting base.
Under the new rule, the eligible senators will form the denominator for computing the two-thirds requirement. Any fractional result will be rounded up to the next whole vote.
Gatchalian, who voted to overturn the court’s earlier interpretation requiring a fixed 16 votes, said the issue was the voting base when some senator-judges are unable to participate, rather than lowering the constitutional threshold.
“The constitutional requirement of two-thirds remains. The question before the Court was which senators are counted in the base when some are unable to participate,” Gatchalian said.
He said the revised formula does not determine the outcome of Duterte’s trial and would apply regardless of whether the votes counted favor conviction or acquittal.
“Ang aking boto ay batay sa prinsipyo, hindi sa sinumang senador o sa nasasakdal” (My vote was based on principle, not on any senator or on the respondent), he said.
Hontiveros said the Senate should remain capable of performing its constitutional role even when some senator-judges cannot participate in the final vote.
“The absence of a number of senators in an impeachment trial should not paralyze and render helpless the entire institution, and the Filipino people we represent,” she said.
She said the focus should be on determining which senators are present and capable of performing their duties.
“Beyond discussions about denominators, fractions, and rounding up and down, ang dapat malaman: Sino ba ang nandito sa korte, at may kakayahang gumanap sa ating tungkulin?” (What should be determined is: Who is here in court and capable of performing our duty?), Hontiveros said.
She also said senators cannot deliberately avoid voting by staying away from the proceedings.
“Hindi din po pwede na sadyaing wag sumipot sa araw ng botohan. Wala pong abstain by absence” (One cannot deliberately stay away on voting day. There is no abstention by absence), she said.
Hontiveros noted that the impeachment rules require each senator, when called to vote, to answer either “guilty” or “not guilty.”
“Voting is a duty, not an option,” she said.
Both senators said the impeachment court considered the views of its amici curiae, or friends of the court, in determining how the constitutional phrase “two-thirds of all the Members of the Senate” should apply when some members cannot participate.
Gatchalian said the amici helped the court consider the purpose of the impeachment process and fairness to the parties beyond the constitutional text.
Hontiveros said the goal should be to allow the Senate to perform its constitutional accountability function while preventing unavoidable absences or deliberate non-participation from preventing a verdict.
“Let us choose to empower, and breathe life into the Constitution,” she said.
The new voting rule applies only to Duterte’s impeachment trial and will not bind future impeachment courts.
Photo courtesy of Philippine Star
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