EDITORIAL — Voting on the threshold

A simple majority in the Senate can overturn the ruling of Francis Escudero, as presiding officer of the impeachment court, that 16 votes are needed to convict Vice President Sara Duterte, according to the court’s spokesperson.

Reginald Tongol said yesterday that considering current absences at the Senate, it would take only 10 votes to lower the voting threshold for convicting Duterte.

The Vice President’s camp agrees with Escudero’s ruling, given at the opening of the trial and which no one contested at the time, that the two-thirds vote of all members of the Senate referred to the number of seats in the chamber, meaning 16 out of 24 votes are required for conviction in an impeachment trial.

At the time, only Sen. Ronald dela Rosa could not participate in the trial, having skipped work since November last year except for one day, on May 11, when he surfaced to cast a decisive vote that replaced Tito Sotto with Alan Peter Cayetano as Senate president.

Since Dela Rosa went back into hiding hours after that tumultuous session, two more senators have been unable to participate in the impeachment trial and other Senate work: Jinggoy Estrada and Rodante Marcoleta, who are being held without bail for plunder.

A fourth minority senator, Loren Legarda, has been on an extended medical leave since Aug. 3 amid an ongoing plunder investigation being conducted by the Office of the Ombudsman.

Last Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano and his sister Sen. Pia Cayetano boarded a flight to Singapore on a private trip amid investigations of alleged flood control anomalies in their turf Taguig as well as the country’s hosting of the 2019 Southeast Asian Games. Authorities, however, said yesterday that the siblings are expected to return to Manila this weekend.

If the siblings are concerned about the impeachment trial of their ally the Vice President, it would be in their interest to return soon.

On Sept. 23, senators are set to vote on Escudero’s ruling on the voting threshold. Tongol has said Escudero himself can’t vote on his own ruling. Assuming that all 19 senators who aren’t detained, in hiding or on leave would participate in person, Tongol said a simple majority of 10 votes would be needed to overturn the ruling. The number goes down to nine if the Cayetano siblings are absent.

Regardless of the outcome of the vote, senators must ensure that the proceedings are orderly and credible. The impeachment trial is generating enough turbulence, and voting on the threshold for conviction should not add to it.