Former Senate president Franklin Drilon said the most challenging stage of Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment case will be securing a conviction in the Senate, which requires a minimum of 16 votes, or two-thirds of the chamber.

In a DZRH radio interview on Thursday, Drilon discussed the expected results from the House Committee on Justice on Wednesday and noted the absence of Duterte’s camp. He suggested that this may signal confidence on her part that the Senate will struggle to gather enough votes for conviction.

“If I look at the current composition of the Senate, I think that, assuming the pro-Marcos and pro-Duterte lines are followed, there are about 19 senators. Based on political alignment, around nine of them would vote in favor of Sara,” Drilon said in Filipino.

However, he added that with Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa reportedly in hiding, Duterte is effectively left with support from only eight senators.

Drilon also said that the impeachment process is expected to shift decisively to the Senate. He noted that the trial is unlikely to face difficulty in the House of Representatives, since only one-third of members are required to advance it—a threshold that mirrors the unanimous committee vote.

“In my reading, it will not be difficult anymore. What is needed is one-third of the entire membership, which I count as 106,” Drilon said.

The former senator emphasized that the evidence presented during the trial could be unpredictable, with the potential for situations to shift from weak to strong substantiations, depending in part on the views of the senator-judges.

Additionally, the official list of the 53–0 vote by the House Committee on Justice has not yet been released.