Adiong: Constitution ‘textual and contextual’ on impeachment vote threshold

House Prosecution Panel spokesperson Zia Adiong described the 1987 Philippine Constitution as both textual and contextual in relation to the two-thirds voting threshold for convicting an impeachable official.

“This is also not really compliance. We already heard former chief justices who also manifested their position and their legal interpretation on that particular provision in the Constitution,” Adiong said during a news forum on Saturday.

“Wherein in the threshold voting, it is fixed as two-thirds. It is very clear that the Constitution is not only textual but also contextual,” the spokesperson added.

The congressman stressed that the House prosecution team had heard the position of the Senate, acting as an impeachment court, in applying the two-thirds voting threshold based on the actual number of senator-judges who are physically able to attend the trial.

Adiong noted that the Constitution is “contextual,” citing the positions and interpretations of former chief justices of the Supreme Court on the particular constitutional provision, which he said would allow the Senate to fully respond to the mandate exclusively given to it by the Constitution.

“That is to try and decide. That is very clear,” he pointed out.

“What is also clear is that the Senate has exclusive power to adopt its own Senate rules, amend its own Senate rules, and whatever decision they will come up with will no longer be reviewable by any courts,” Adiong said.

The House prosecution spokesperson, however, reiterated that the recent decision on the voting threshold does not lower the number of senators who can vote, but applies the two-thirds requirement to the exact number of senator-judges who are physically and legally participating in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.

“It is not being lowered; the two-thirds is really fixed,” the congressman said.

The Senate impeachment court voted 13-1 on 23 September to overturn Senate Presiding Officer Francis Escudero’s July ruling that set the conviction threshold at 16 votes, or two-thirds of the 24-member Senate. Under the new ruling, the two-thirds requirement is based on senators who are legally and factually capable of participating in the proceedings when judgment is rendered.

The ruling is being challenged before the Supreme Court, with separate petitions seeking to nullify the impeachment court’s decision.