Chiz Escudero after casting 'no' vote: Chair takes exception to decision but... - GMA Network

Senate impeachment court presiding officer Senator-Judge Francis Escudero indicated that he disagreed with the tribunal’s decision to change the base of the two-thirds vote needed to convict Vice President Sara Duterte, but added that its ruling reigned supreme over his preference for the threshold to remain at 16.

Escudero said this after the Senate impeachment court voted, 13-1, that the two-thirds vote shall be based on all the members who have legally and factually participated in the proceedings, and not on all 24 members of the Senate.

Six members, all belonging to the minority, chose not to participate.

“For the record, while the Chair takes exception to this decision, the Chair nonetheless accepts it as a judgment of this Court and is bound to give it effect,” Escudero said after saying the only "nay" in the proceedings regarding the threshold rule.

“The Presiding Officer, after all, is not the Court. He is merely the Custodian of the process not the proprietor of its outcome. This is the essence of democracy: that disagreement be preserved without obstruction and that a lawful result be obeyed without resentment,” he added.

Escudero said graceful acceptance of defeat is a tradition that “gives strength and legitimacy to the Senate” whether it sits as a legislative body or as an impeachment Court.

“We allow the fullest ventilation of views even if those views differ sharply from our own. But at the end of the day, we vote. We abide by the judgment of the majority even if we disagree with it,” Escudero said.

“Accordingly, the Chair accepts and declares the ruling adopted by the Court as the new controlling ruling upon further proceedings, and the Chair shall apply this ruling faithfully,” he added.

It was Senator-Judge Erwin Tulfo who made the motion to change the threshold, given that four senators have been absent from impeachment trial proceedings due to varying reasons.

Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Rodante Marcoleta are detained on plunder and other related charges due to their alleged involvement in flood control (P573 million) and undeclared campaign donations (P75 million), respectively.

Senator Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa, on the other hand, is in hiding amid a standing warrant of arrest issued against him by the International Criminal Court due to his alleged involvement in the drug war deaths during the Rodrigo Duterte administration.

Senator Loren Legarda, for her part, is on an extended medical leave abroad due to a lung ailment.

"This ruling and interpretation of the court shall operate pro hac vice, or for this occasion only. It shall not constitute a binding precedent in any future impeachment proceedings," Escudero said.

"This is a ruling, not an amendment of the rules. As such, it has no binding but merely persuasive effect on future impeachment proceedings, the hands of whom we cannot shackle as there is no stare decisis as between impeachment courts,” he added.

“Further, the circumstances that gave rise to this ruling are extraordinary... and the chair hopes that it shall never happen again,” Escudero said.

Escudero, after the vote on the threshold ruling, explained the basis for determining the number of votes needed for conviction, given that four of the 24 senator-judges have been unable to participate in the proceedings.

Escudero, however, said that such determination of who the senator-judges qualified to vote for the conviction or acquittal of Duterte will come at a later time. —NB, GMA News