Prosec hails SC dismissal of pleas vs impeach court voting threshold

MANILA, Philippines — House prosecutor and Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon on Wednesday hailed the dismissal by the Supreme Court of the petitions challenging the Senate Impeachment Court’s ruling on the voting threshold to convict Vice President Sara Duterte.

Ridon emphasized that their work on impeachment proceedings will continue. 

The SC has junked separate petitions filed by former Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguex and lawyer Ernesto Francisco Jr. due to procedural lapses.

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The petitioners sought for judicial intervention after the Senate voted on the 16-vote threshold needed to convict Duterte. 

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“We thank the Supreme Court for dismissing the petitions against the Senate Impeachment Court’s voting threshold,” Ridon said in a statement.

READ: SC junks pleas vs Senate impeachment court’s voting rule

Last September 23, senator-judges voted 13-1, with six Duterte allies abstaining, that the constitutionally required two-thirds for guilty verdict by “all members of the Senate” refers to those “capable of participating.”

The amended rule now provides that the phrase “two-thirds of all the Members of Senate” in Article XI, Section 3(6) of the Constitution will be calculated using a reduced denominator composed of senators deemed “legally and factually capable of participating” during the time of the voting. 

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The calculation of the voting excludes those who are in hiding, detained, suspended, medically incapacitated, or those beyond the coercive processes of the Senate. 

Following the ruling from the high tribunal, Ridon said that their work in the prosecution team will proceed.

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READ: Sara Duterte trial: Impeachment court amends threshold ruling

“What a waste of paper and trees,” the lawmaker lamented. “But the trial will proceed tomorrow and the days after.”

The impeachment trial will resume on Thursday after Wednesday’s trial was canceled.

Impeachment court spokesperson Atty. Reginald Tongol said that the trial is “aggressively ahead of schedule.”

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Tongol added that the postponement is a “strategic procedural pause designed to clear the floor, so both panels can prepare for the whole-day marathon sessions running continuously from October 1 to 15.” /apl