They say 14 votes are enough to convict Sara Duterte.

Some say 15. Thirteen. Very impressive. The number is already wobbling before the trial even begins.

There are only 22 senators available. Two are missing. In jail. Hunted. The rumor mill says Bong Go is next. Marcoleta, Villar, whoever is the flavor of the week.

Maybe then 12 is enough? If only 18 can show up, maybe 11. Fifteen? Ten.

And when nine senators are left, maybe six can hand down the political death sentence. Not with the full Senate. Not with overwhelming proof. Not with the republic’s full weight. Six people. A coup without a quorum in a broken room, swinging a constitutional sword too heavy for their hands.

Representative Jinkee Luistro: “It is important to realize that the Constitution and the laws are evolving. It has to respond to the needs of the times.”

Whose needs, Jinkee? The needs of the republic? Justice? Or the needs of the prosecution that cannot find 16?

You do not want the Constitution to evolve. You want it to cooperate and say, “You tried. Therefore, by the mercy of the Republic of the Philippines, you pass.”

Jinkee, if a man scores a 40 on the bar, does he become a lawyer because the other examinees were sick?

Let’s understand Jinkee’s 14-vote logic with a giraffe.

What is a giraffe? It is a horse that got stretched in a Cha-cha. A ladder wearing mascara. This particular giraffe, a very special giraffe, is standing under a tree and has been told all his life that he has a historic mandate to eat the mango.

Any normal animal would understand the situation. The mango is hanging at 16. The giraffe’s mouth is two votes below the fruit. But the giraffe is a lawyer. It has ambition. Instead of saying, “Maybe I need more neck,” the giraffe holds a press conference under the tree and says, “Actually, the mango is lower now.”

Because two giraffes are missing. Therefore, he’s taller. It did not add inches to his neck. It only made the savanna creepier and Jinkee stand in a more suspicious zoo.

That is the poison in your logic. You want hunger to become height; desire, proof. You want missing senators to become yes votes.

The mango should come down because you really, really want it. Wonderful. Everyone wants the mango. The monkey. The goat. The crocodile wants the mango, the goat, and eventually public office.

Maybe Bongbong wants the mango. The NBI. Maybe the Sandiganbayan is preparing a mango-related subpoena.

The mango, by the way, is very calm. The tree is doing its job. It is not anti-giraffe, biased, or unconstitutional. The tree is the standard that exists because powerful people want things so badly, they call their revenge destiny.

That is the mental illness at the center of the argument: “Because the Senate is diminished, conviction should be easier.”

Huh?

A diminished Senate is not a stronger Senate. A broken scale is not more accurate because it has fewer parts. If your car loses two tires, is it faster? No. You’re in danger. And now you must drive even more carefully. A bridge that loses steel plates does not become flexible. When the flood control cement vanished, everybody knew it was a scandal.

Broken things do not get to carry heavier loads. This is the great fraud of 14. They want the verdict strengthened in a smaller, unchallenged Senate.

A missing senator may weaken deliberation, representation, and legitimacy, but it cannot strengthen the prosecution.

They are treating an empty chair as though it raised its hand. A very talented chair. Very loyal. It never questions the evidence. It never objects. Maybe give the chair a committee.

The less complete the court, the less arrogant the judgment should become.

The “all members” phrase in the Constitution was chosen to prevent this scam. This matters because the US Constitution uses a different phrase: two-thirds of the members present.

The Americans wrote “present.” Filipinos did not. That difference is nuclear. It means the framers knew the option existed and chose the higher bar.