Sara Duterte's defense team: July 6 voting threshold ruling not subject to appeal - GMA Network

The defense team of Vice President Sara Duterte said the required voting threshold needed to convict should remain at 16, saying the Senate impeachment court’s July 6 ruling setting it at 16 is not appealable.

Defense counsel Michael Poa noted that there is no supervening event that should prompt the Senate to change the ruling put forward by Senate impeachment court presiding officer Francis Escudero that 16 is the required number of votes to convict.

“Last July 6, 2026, on the very first day of trial, the presiding officer ruled that a voting threshold to convict is 16. At that time, no senator-judge objected. No senator-judge sought reconsideration. No senator-judge appealed. Your Honors, that was over two months ago. There is no supervening event [to change the threshold]. Our point is, nothing changed between July 6 and today,” Poa said during Day 29 of the impeachment trial of the Vice President.

“Your Honors, reading the rules on impeachment, under Rule number six, there is no timeframe within which a motion for reconsideration can be considered. Naturally, because that should have been brought up at the earliest opportunity. But that did not happen,” he added.

Further, Poa said changing the threshold will violate the Vice President’s right to due process.

Meanwhile, the House prosecution panel argued that the conviction of Duterte should be based on two-thirds of all members of the Senate who are present in the proceedings, saying that including absent senators could result in acquittal by default.

House prosecutor and Akbayan Representative Chel Diokno noted that lowering the base number of all 24 senators will reduce both the numbers needed to convict and the numbers needed to acquit.

“A situation na may senador na hindi nakapag-oath for whatever reason o kaya illegally prevented from performing a senator's job…lahat nakakulong at suspended sa katungkulan dahil sa utos ng batas. Each of them cannot hear the evidence, deliberate, and vote. Their inability to participate is beyond dispute. And yet, if the denominator is fixed at 24, conviction would always require 16 votes. Absurd po ito,” he said.

(There’s a situation that a senator fails to take oath as a senator-judge or illegally prevented from performing his job…a situation when senators are all detained, suspended, due to lawful orders. It would be absurd to include them.)

It was Senator-judge Erwin Tulfo who sought reconsideration of the July 6 ruling, considering that four of the 24 senators have not been present in the impeachment trial proceedings.

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

Senator Ronald dela Rosa, on the other hand, is nowhere to be found amid a standing warrant of arrest issued against him by the International Criminal Court due to his alleged involvement in the drug war deaths.

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