Only 10 Votes Needed to Overturn 16-Vote Rule in Sara Duterte Impeachment Trial

The Senate impeachment court has clarified that only 10 senator-judge votes would be needed to overturn the current ruling requiring 16 votes to convict Vice President Sara Duterte.

Impeachment court spokesperson Reginald Tongol said on Friday, September 11, that Presiding Officer Francis “Chiz” Escudero will not participate in the vote on the threshold issue because the 16-vote requirement was based on his own ruling.

With four senator-judges currently unable to participate and Escudero excluded from the vote, 19 senator-judges would be left to decide the matter. A simple majority of 10 votes would therefore be enough to reverse the ruling.

However, if the vote ends in a tie, the appeal to change the threshold would fail and Escudero’s original 16-vote ruling would remain in effect.

The dispute centers on whether the constitutional requirement of a two-thirds vote of all Senate members—equivalent to 16 of the 24 senators—should remain the standard for conviction despite the absence of four senator-judges.

The four senators currently unable to participate are Rodante Marcoleta and Jinggoy Estrada, who are detained over plunder cases, Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who is in hiding, and Loren Legarda, who is on medical leave.

The impeachment court has also sought the views of four former Supreme Court justices as amici curiae, or “friends of the court,” to help resolve the constitutional question.

Retired Chief Justices Artemio Panganiban, Reynato Puno, and Hilario Davide Jr., along with retired Associate Justice Adolfo Azcuna, have been tapped to provide their legal opinions. Panganiban, Puno, and Azcuna are expected to appear before the court on September 16, while Davide will submit a legal memorandum.

The legal experts are expected to address whether the impeachment court can lower the 16-vote requirement because of the current number of participating senator-judges, as well as other constitutional questions surrounding the voting process.

Oral arguments from the prosecution and defense are scheduled for September 23, when the senator-judges are also expected to resolve the threshold issue.

The House prosecution has welcomed the participation of the former justices, saying their expertise could help clarify the Constitution’s two-thirds requirement. Two of the legal experts, Davide and Azcuna, were members of the 1986 Constitutional Commission that drafted the 1987 Constitution.

Meanwhile, Duterte has questioned the decision to revisit the voting threshold, arguing that the original ruling was already based on the Constitution.

The threshold issue is separate from the merits of the impeachment charges themselves, which will ultimately be decided by the senator-judges based on the evidence and arguments presented during the trial.