The House prosecution panel on Thursday clarified that the exchange between Lead Prosecutor Rep. Gerville Luistro and Sen. Robin Padilla during Vice President Sara Duterte's impeachment trial did not concern the number of votes needed to secure a conviction.

Speaking at a press conference, public prosecutor Rep. Terry Ridon said the discussion during Wednesday's hearing was limited to whether pending criminal cases could disqualify a witness from testifying and whether the same principle should apply to senator-judges.

The issue arose after Padilla asked Luistro about the eligibility of National Bureau of Investigation officials and other prosecution witnesses who are facing perjury complaints.

Luistro replied that a conviction is not a ground for disqualification unless it is already final, punishable by more than one year of imprisonment, and involves a crime of moral turpitude.

Padilla then asked whether senator-judges facing pending cases should be treated similarly.

Ridon said the prosecution never interpreted the exchange as referring to the impeachment court's conviction threshold.

"Our understanding of the discussion only pertained to the eligibility of witnesses and whether the same principle should apply to senator-judges," Ridon said.

He added that the prosecution has consistently maintained that 16 affirmative votes are required for conviction but would leave the final determination to the Senate impeachment court.

"We leave it to the Senate impeachment court to make that determination because they are the ones that will decide what the threshold for conviction will be for the proceedings," he said.

Private prosecutor Atty. Jay Tolosa echoed Ridon's statement, saying the prosecution remains focused on presenting evidence rather than counting votes.

"We are not focused on how many votes we need to get. Our focus is to ensure that we get the required votes at the end of the trial," Tolosa said.

The prosecution completed the presentation of evidence for Article IV on Wednesday. Hearings will resume on 29 July, when prosecutors are set to present their first witness for Article I, which concerns the alleged misuse of confidential funds.

Senate impeachment court presiding officer Sen. Francis Escudero also announced that succeeding trial days will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to allow the Senate to attend to legislative business.