By Wilnard Bacelonia
The Senate impeachment court will continue Vice President Sara Duterte’s trial under its newly adopted voting rule unless the Supreme Court (SC) intervenes, Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian said Friday as the dispute over the conviction threshold reached the high court.
“Tuloy. Wala namang TRO so tuloy (It will continue. There is no TRO, so it will continue),” Gatchalian said in a chance interview at the Senate.
Former executive secretary Vic Rodriguez filed a petition Thursday asking the SC to nullify the impeachment court’s Sept. 23 ruling that abandoned a fixed 16-vote threshold and instead based the constitutional two-thirds requirement on senators legally and factually capable of participating when judgment is rendered.
Rodriguez also sought a temporary restraining order against the ruling, arguing that the Constitution requires two-thirds of all 24 Senate members, or 16 votes, for conviction.
The impeachment court voted 13-1 on Wednesday to overturn its earlier interpretation fixing the threshold at 16, with six senator-judges not participating in the vote.
Under the controlling ruling, senators who are detained, suspended, legally restrained from performing their duties, medically or physically incapacitated, beyond the chamber’s coercive processes or similarly situated may be excluded from the voting base when the court renders judgment.
Asked whether the Senate would continue applying the ruling despite the pending SC challenge, Gatchalian said the impeachment court is bound by its own decision unless circumstances change.
“Well, yun ang ruling ng court and the court made that decision so yun ang susundin namin (Well, that is the ruling of the court, and the court made that decision, so that is what we will follow),” he said.
Gatchalian declined to speculate on how the SC might act on the petition.
“We’ll cross the bridge when we get there. Hindi natin alam kung ano magiging decision (We don’t know what the decision will be),” he said.
The Senate President also maintained that the court could proceed with the trial so long as a quorum of senator-judges is present, even if Duterte’s defense panel chooses not to attend.
“Ang responsibility namin is to try and decide. So as long as meron kaming quorum, magta-try kami (Our responsibility is to try and decide. So as long as we have a quorum, we will proceed with the trial),” Gatchalian said.
He also said he had received no indication that senator-judges themselves intend to stop participating in the proceedings following the threshold controversy, noting that minority members continue to attend Senate budget hearings and Commission on Appointments proceedings.
Gatchalian earlier stressed that the court’s ruling did not change the constitutional two-thirds requirement itself, but only determined which senators would form the voting base if some members are legally or factually unable to participate.
