Sen. Erwin Tulfo Speaks on Recent Senate Impeachment Court Ruling over Votes To Convict VP Sara Duterte
ERWIN TULFO – The majority Senator clarified that the Senate impeachment court maintains the 2/3 voting threshold.
Amid the impeachment trial proceedings, the senator-judges revisited the voting threshold to acquit or convict Vice President Sara Duterte. With 24 senator judges, the required votes is 16. However, due to the situation of some senators now, the remaining senator-judges tackled the long-time question if “16” will remain as “16” even if there are only 20 of them who attend the trial now.
With a 13-6-1 voting, the Senate impeachment court changed the voting threshold to convict Vice Pres. Sara Duterte. Here are the senators who voted in favor and against the new ruling. Six (6) senator-judges from the minority bloc declined to participate in the voting.
YES
- Sherwin Gatchalian
- Bam Aquino
- JV Ejercito
- Ping Lacson
- Lito Lapid
- Kiko Pangilinan
- Vicente “Tito” Sotto
- Erwin Tulfo
- Raffy Tulfo
- Joel Villanueva
- Mark Villar
- Miguel Zubiri
NO
- Francis “Chiz” Escudero
DIDN’T VOTE
- Alan Peter Cayetano
- Pia Cayetano
- Robin Padilla
- Camille Villar
- Bong Go
- Imee Marcos
Under the new ruling, senators who cannot participate as judges physically during the trial will not be counted. If there are 20 senator-judges, the required number of votes to convict Vice Pres. Sara Duterte is 14.
The recent ruling of the Senate impeachment court came amid four (4) senators being physically unable to sit as senator-judges in the impeachment trial of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte. Sen. Bato dela Rosa remain in hiding amid a supposed International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against him.
Senators Rodante Marcoleta and Jinggoy Estrada are currently detained due to plunder. Sen. Loren Legarda has yet to return from her medical leave. Recently, Sen. Erwin Tulfo defended the recent move of the Senate impeachment court and stressed that they did not lower the voting threshold.
“We did not lower the threshold. Two-thirds is still two-thirds of all members… Two-thirds ng 24,” the Senator-judge said based on ABS-CBN News.
Sen. Erwin Tulfo further expressed that if the senators who were absent during the previous impeachment proceedings will arrive and attend the trial, they can vote. Based on the post, he stressed that they are maintaining the 2/3 denominator.
“‘Pag dumating sila dito, ‘di boboto sila, we’re maintaining the two-thirds. Darating si Sen. Loren, boboto. ‘Pag pinayagan ng Sandiganbayan ‘yung dalawang senador na may kaso, boboto. ‘Pag dumating si Sen. Bato, boboto. Pabobotohin lahat ‘pag dumating sila sa araw ng botohan,” Tulfo expressed.
Recently, amid the different opinions on the recent ruling of the Senate impeachment court, 1987 Constitution framer Christian Monsod spoke on the voting threshold in the impeachment.
