Senate impeachment court asks SC to dismiss Go, Padilla voting threshold petition

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The Senate impeachment court, through the Office of the Solicitor General, has asked the Supreme Court to dismiss a petition filed by Senators Robin Padilla and Bong Go seeking to declare null the ruling on the voting threshold for Vice President Sara Duterte’s conviction.

“It is respectfully prayed of the Honorable Court to dismiss the Petition for Certiorari and Prohibition for being premature and for lack of merit, and to deny petitioners' application for the issuance of a Status Quo Ante Order, Temporary Restraining Order, and Writ of Preliminary Injunction,” read the 47-page comment filed by the OSG.

In a petition for certiorari and prohibition filed in October, Padilla, Go, and the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) asked the SC to issue a status quo ante order or a temporary restraining order directing the Impeachment court and the House of Representatives to refrain from excluding any senator from the count of “all members of the Senate” under the Constitution.

The impeachment court earlier voted to base the “two-thirds of votes” on the number of senators who are capable of "legally and factually participating in the impeachment proceedings."

Under the 1987 Constitution, no person shall be convicted in an impeachment trial without the concurrence of two-thirds of all the members of the Senate.

The OSG said the authority and responsibility to decide on the voting threshold belongs to the Senate impeachment court, adding that "no grave abuse of discretion can be imputed on the challenged ruling."

It added that the court heard both the defense and prosecution and even invited amici curiae before deciding on the matter. It also noted that the senator-judges deliberated in open session where objections were raised.

"Indisputably, the challenged ruling was a product of a deliberative process where all the parties were given the opportunity to defend their respective positions. Each objection was entertained and resolved," it said.

It further said that the Senate, in ruling on the voting threshold, did not amend but merely interpreted the constitutional provision.

"The Senate's threshold ruling was not an attempt to remove the two-thirds requirement. It was a rule on who should be counted as part of the Senate impeachment court when some senators are unable to take their oaths or participate. Without such a rule, non-participating senators would be counted as though they had performed functions and as if they had voted for acquittal," the OSG said. —AOL, GMA News