HOUSE trial spokesperson Zia Alonto Adiong of Lanao del Sur said Wednesday that the votes of four senator-judges currently unable to participate in Vice President Z. Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial should not be presumed in determining the votes needed for conviction or acquittal.
Alonto Adiong raised the issue as the impeachment court continued to consider whether senators who are detained, abroad or otherwise unable to participate should remain part of the denominator in computing the two-thirds vote required for conviction.
“Assuming, for example, na boboto or allowed ’yung pagboto nitong four, how sure are we that they can vote yes or no, or mag-i-inhibit ba sila?” Alonto Adiong asked during the prosecution panel’s Wednesday press briefing.
Two senators are detained while facing plunder cases, Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa has remained absent from the proceedings and Sen. Loren Legarda has been abroad on medical leave.
“So halimbawa si Senator Bato dela Rosa, with all due respect, hindi nga ho natin alam kung nasaan siya. So how sure are we whether he basically abstains, he votes yes or he votes no?” Alonto Adiong asked.
The debate has often focused on whether excluding unavailable senators would reduce the votes needed to convict Duterte, but Alonto Adiong pointed out that no one could know beforehand how any of the four would actually vote if they participated.
A senator could vote to convict, acquit, abstain or inhibit, meaning simply including an unavailable member in the denominator does not establish how that senator would have resolved the case.
“Remember, four votes po ito, so we don’t even want to assume what would be the vote of these four senator-judges,” Alonto Adiong stressed.
The Constitution requires concurrence by two-thirds of all Senate members for conviction but does not state a fixed numerical threshold.
The impeachment court sought opinions from four retired Supreme Court magistrates after Senator-Judge Erwin Tulfo questioned whether the full 24-member Senate should remain the denominator under the chamber’s present circumstances.
“So kung magma-matter ’yun to arrive into a reasonable number either to acquit or to convict, mahihirapan po ang Senado,” Alonto Adiong explained.
Alonto Adiong maintained that the Senate therefore had to resolve the issue based on the actual capacity of its members to participate rather than assumptions about votes that had never been cast.
metrosundaily
