MANILA, Philippines — Former Supreme Court Associate Justice Adolfo Azcuna on Wednesday maintained that the voting threshold in an impeachment case is two-thirds of all the members of the Senate, and "not merely two-thirds of a quorum present at the trial."
Speaking as an amicus curiae or friend of the Senate Impeachment Court, Azcuna argued that the threshold must be "fixed, not variable" and should not change depending on how many senators are able to participate.
"For example, if there are only 20 who are participating, two-thirds of 20 would effectively become 13 or 14, so that would be really simple majority. That is not the purpose of the internal check of a threshold. A threshold must be fixed, not variable. It must be determinable from the start," Azcuna said.
"As long as they are members of the Senate, they constitute the denominator in computing the threshold of two-thirds because all means all," he added.
Azcuna's position differed from the three other former justices who appeared before the Senate Impeachment Court, who argued that the provision should not be interpreted strictly in light of senators who were absent or otherwise unable to participate in the proceedings.
On the issue of whether a senator-judge who has no active participation in the trial can vote, Azcuna said he is in favor of allowing the senator-judge to vote according to his conscience.
"In case of doubt, I would allow such a person to vote because this tribunal is a tribunal of record. The proceedings are recorded. Someone who fails or absent in some of the trials can easily check what the witnesses testified to based on the transcript. Moreover, most of the evidence here are documentary," he said.
