More time needed to resolve impeach vote threshold

MANILA, Philippines — The impeachment court trying Vice President Sara Duterte may defer resolving the voting threshold question to give senators more time to study the issue, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said yesterday.

Sen. Erwin Tulfo’s motion sought to clarify before the impeachment court where the two-thirds vote to convict Duterte would be based: all 24 members of the Senate or only those who actively participated throughout the trial.

Presiding officer Francis Escudero set the schedule to decide on Tulfo’s motion on Wednesday.

Before deciding, both the prosecution and defense panels will engage in oral arguments to debate the issue, with senators given time for interjections.

Four friends of the court, or amici curiae, provided insights last week to help the impeachment court arrive at a decision.

For Lacson, the complexities of the matter will be difficult to digest in a couple of minutes or hours.

A senator may put forward a motion to defer the voting – at the earliest, the following week, which is from Sept. 28 to 30 – “if the arguments are still unclear for some of us.”

“I’d like to think that we will be given time to sleep over it to dissect everything that will be tackled in the oral arguments,” Lacson said over radio dzMM. “Maybe it won’t be enough that after the oral arguments, we will immediately vote.”

Sen. JV Ejercito also prefers a deferral, saying non-lawyers like him should have time to study everything.

“It’s good to hear arguments from legal luminaries, so it’s a big thing for us for our appreciation so we can make the right decision,” Ejercito said over radio dwIZ.

“What’s important to us is that we should not make mistakes in this decision. We should not violate the Constitution, so we should be given more time to study,” he added.

According to impeachment court spokesman Regie Tongol, it will need 11 affirmative votes to overturn Escudero’s original rule that 16 votes are needed to convict the Vice President.

Currently, Sens. Jinggoy Estrada and Rodante Marcoleta are detained for separate plunder charges, Sen. Ronald dela Rosa is hiding from an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court and Sen. Loren Legarda is abroad to treat her serious lung illness.

This leaves only 20 senator-judges actively participating in the trial.