Prosecution won’t raise vote threshold before SC

MANILA, Philippines — Members of the prosecution panel for the impeachment trial have made it clear that they will not go to the Supreme Court (SC) to raise the issue of the vote threshold needed to convict Vice President Sara Duterte, but at the same time noted that other groups are free to do so.

In various interviews on Monday, prosecution panel members Atty. Jay Tolosa and San Juan Rep. Ysabel Maria Zamora, along with spokesperson and former Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, stressed that the team is not entertaining the idea of pushing to lower the threshold.

Article XI, Section 3(6) of the 1987 Constitution states that a person being tried by the impeachment court cannot be convicted “without the concurrence of two-thirds of all the Members of the Senate,” which means that 16 out of 24 votes are needed. However, there are proposals to lower the number now that two senators are outside of the chamber’s reach.

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Establish an airtight case

“Well at this time, our position on this has been consistent from the very start. We don’t engage in vote counting, at the end of the day, our priority here is to establish an airtight case, we will ensure that with our case, this will be backed by solid evidence,” Tolosa said.

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“So that when the trial ends, regardless of what will be the final interpretation of the two-thirds threshold, we will get these numbers. So that is the priority of the prosecution from the start, and it remains to be our priority until now,” he added.

Barbers said that there are many “schools of thought” that came out because of several senator-judges not being able to attend the trial. However, while anyone is free to raise the matter before the SC, it is not the prosecution panel that will do it.

“The prosecution is not involved in the political arithmetic, so to speak. We don’t want that because we don’t think it’s timely. But if anyone raises this before the Supreme Court, then it’s a welcome development. Whatever the decision of the court will be, of course the prosecution panel will respect that,” Barbers noted.

“Again, I’d like to emphasize that we’re not involved in political arithmetic or whatever calculations are involved. What the prosecution team is focused on is one, lay down the evidence; present the evidence in a manner relatable and understandable by the people; and third, show the importance of this accountability mechanism we are speaking of,” he added.

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‘Very busy’

Zamora, in an interview with INQUIRER before the trial resumed, said that the prosecution is very busy right now with the impeachment trial and therefore cannot attend to the filing of petitions before the SC.

“Well we said that of course, the presiding officer said that 16 is the threshold, so us as officers of the court, lawyers in an impeachment court, we will follow the 16,” she said.

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“Now if there are other people who will file petitions questioning the threshold, then we will just watch what will happen in that case before the Supreme Court,” she added. “Yes, we will not file a case before the Supreme Court, we are very busy now with presenting our evidence.”

As of Monday, three members of the Senate are out of reach of the impeachment court. Initially, it was only Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa who was out of the public eye after reports of an arrest order from the International Criminal Court, but Senator Jinggoy also became unable to participate in the impeachment trial due to his detention on plunder raps.

Last July 11, the Sandiganbayan—which will try Estrada for the plunder raps—rejected his motion to participate in Duterte’s impeachment trial.

READ: Court: Jinggoy can’t join VP impeachment trial; graft case stays

Recently, plunder complaints were also filed against Senator Rodante Marcoleta, leading to his detention. These developments led to the Senate having just 21 members attending the impeachment trial.

READ: Marcoleta, 3 others arrested for plunder

As early as June 22, Tolosa already said that the prosecution team’s goal is to build a case with overwhelming evidence that can convict Vice President Sara Duterte regardless of how the threshold is interpreted.

During a press briefing that day, Tolosa gave this assurance when asked to elaborate an earlier statement about the defense panel seeking an immediate discussion on the votes needed to convict Duterte.

Tolosa declined to give his opinion on whether there is a need to lower the number of the votes needed to convict Duterte, from 16 to 15 or 14. Instead, the lawyer said their intention is to ensure that there is a “compelling case” that can sustain a conviction, whatever the number is.

READ: Prosecution goal: Convict Duterte regardless of threshold interpretation

According to Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, another prosecution panel spokesperson, the interest in the threshold issue only shows that the people are intently monitoring developments regarding the impeachment proceedings.

“I think the issue of the threshold, is an indication of how important this impeachment trial is to the public. Because we heard the opinions, the different opinions from the legal community, and this did not emanate from the prosecution itself, it came out during the first discussion when it was sure that there will be a transmittal of the impeachment complaints to the Senate,” he said.

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“So this is an indication that the people really want this trial to move forward by making sure that whatever is would be the threshold, it would render the Senate responsive to the current situation that they’re in right now insofar as the membership is concerned,” he added. /cb