A law dean on Wednesday questioned the Senate’s position that 16 votes remain the threshold for conviction in an impeachment trial even if some senators are absent, arguing that the Constitution’s two-thirds requirement should apply only to senators who actually participate in the proceedings.

Rev. Fr. Ranhilio Aquino, dean of the Graduate School of Law at San Beda University, said the phrase “two-thirds of all the Members of the Senate” assumes that all senators counted in the computation have heard the evidence and taken part in deliberations before voting.

“The premise of the Constitution, when it says two-thirds of all senators, is that all of them listened to the evidence and discussed it with their colleagues before making a decision,” Aquino said in Filipino during an interview.

Aquino maintained that absent senators should not be included in determining the number of votes needed for conviction, saying the threshold should not be treated as a fixed number.

No auto acquittal

“Two-thirds cannot be a fixed number. The premise of the Constitution, when it says two-thirds of all senators, is that all of them listened to the evidence and discussed it with their colleagues before deciding,” he said.