House prosecutors, Sara's defense agree: Trial unlikely to be finished in 3 months

The prosecution team and the counsels for Vice President Sara Duterte in her upcoming impeachment trial agreed that three months or until September is a tight timeline to finish the proceedings, given the gravity of the documents and the volume of witnesses. 

Lawyer Michael Poa concurred with Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro, head of the prosecution panel, that the trial would be exhaustive, making it impossible to conclude it in three months as initially projected by the lawmaker. 

“If I will consider the number of witnesses and exhibits of both parties, it looks like it goes beyond September,” Luistro said partly in Filipino in a briefing at the Senate.

In a chance interview on the sidelines of day two of the pre-trial conference in the Senate, Poa remarked, “I think so too. I agree with that.” 

Duterte’s impeachment trial is scheduled to begin on 6 July. 

House prosecutors requested 62 trial dates to present their witnesses, while the defense only sought half of that period, or 30 days. 

Despite this, they said the verdict rests solely with the Senate impeachment court and that any disagreements on the date will not affect the scheduled trial in the first week of July.

Stick with 16-vote threshold

As this developed, Senator Imee Marcos slammed alleged efforts by “genius mathematicians” to lower the mandated threshold for conviction, while she encouraged analysts and legal luminaries to stop bending the Constitution. 

Marcos, a prominent ally of the VP, argued that the Constitution explicitly set the required number of votes to convict an impeached official at 16, which is equivalent to two-thirds of the 24-member Senate.

“What’s not clear about the word all? I don’t know what’s gotten into these deans, and famous legal luminaries, have eaten... Stop it. There’s nothing to interpret,” Marcos said in a short video posted on her Facebook page on Monday.

The absence of Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Bato dela Rosa—both allied with the Senate faction supportive of Duterte—has sparked intense debates on whether the 16 votes would be maintained or can be dropped below the threshold, given the circumstances.

Legal experts are divided on the matter, while most senators, including Senate President Win Gatchalian and some of his allies, believe that the constitutionally mandated 16 votes will take precedence regardless of how many senators are present during the trial. 

Earlier, former Supreme Court associate justice Adolfo Azcuna told Daily Tribune that the Senate impeachment court “cannot lower the threshold for conviction unless it expels a member or possibly declares him or her as resigned.”

Although he added that several legal experts from their group, called “Citizens’ Jury,” are of the view “that those unable to actively participate should not be included in the count.”

As for absent senators, their votes are automatically counted as abstentions, according to Azcuna, one of the framers of the 1987 Constitution.