Sara defense zeroes in on impeachment vote threshold

The legal team of Vice President Sara Duterte is now focusing on the voting threshold for conviction in her impeachment trial, defense counsel Michael Poa said Thursday, identifying the issue as the defense’s main concern as the Senate proceedings enter a critical phase.

Poa said the defense was no longer prioritizing the separate issue involving Senate President Francis Escudero’s designation as presiding officer, although he said the team had not waived any possible defenses on the matter.

“Sa ngayon, just to be candid with everyone, ang talagang pinag-uusapan namin is really the voting threshold,” Poa told reporters after Thursday’s trial session.

The threshold issue concerns how the Senate will apply the constitutional requirement that an impeached official cannot be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of all members of the Senate.

At the opening of the trial on 6 July, Escudero ruled that 16 votes — two-thirds of the 24-member Senate — would be required for conviction. The impeachment court later revisited that ruling after several senators were unable to participate in the proceedings.

On 23 September, senator-judges voted 13-1 to base the two-thirds requirement on senators who are legally and factually capable of participating in the trial, rather than automatically counting all 24 Senate members. Six senator-judges did not participate in that vote.

The change was opposed by Escudero, who cast the lone dissenting vote but said the court’s ruling would be binding on him as presiding officer.

Poa also said the defense had not ruled out bringing its legal arguments before the Supreme Court, but the team wanted to study recent decisions first to determine whether a petition would be appropriate.

“Definitely that's still on the table,” Poa said when asked whether the defense could file a case.

Poa said the defense was weighing both the timing of a possible filing and the arguments it would raise, noting that a case could become moot or be considered premature depending on when it was brought.

“We also don't want to waste the court's time,” he said.

The defense is also studying the Supreme Court’s full decision on petitions challenging aspects of the impeachment proceedings before deciding whether to pursue its own case. Poa said the team wanted to understand the Court’s reasoning, particularly its treatment of the petitions as premature.

“It would be interesting to read yung reason mismo ng prematurity,” he said.