THE six senator-judges who declined to participate in the vote revising the conviction threshold in Vice President Sara Z. Duterte’s impeachment trial have the option to question the Senate impeachment court’s action before the Supreme Court (SC).
“I think it’s their freedom also from questioning the actions of the impeachment court before the Supreme Court, siguro, if they should decide to go to the Supreme Court,” House impeachment prosecutor and Bukidnon Rep. Jonathan Keith Flores said in an interview on One News’ Morning Matters.
The Senate impeachment court voted 13-1 to overturn the earlier interpretation requiring 16 votes to convict Duterte and adopted a formula that computes the two-thirds threshold based on the senator-judges who are legally capable of participating when judgment is rendered.
Six minority senator-judges, Alan Peter Cayetano, Pia Cayetano, Christopher “Bong” Go, Imee Marcos, Robin Padilla and Camille Villar, did not participate in the voting.
Their non-participation came after the impeachment court rejected an effort led by Cayetano to resolve the issue in a later date.
“I think they did not participate on the voting lang for using the threshold because they already filed the motion na hindi natin pagbotohan ’to, but then it was overruled, so they went to voting and ayaw nilang mag-participate,” Flores explained.
None of the six senator-judges has publicly stated that they will file a petition before the SC to challenge the impeachment court’s decision.
The SC’s judicial power allows it to review acts of government bodies to determine whether there was grave abuse of discretion.
metrosundaily
