(UPDATE) MANILA, Philippines — The Senate Impeachment Court voted to lower the threshold required to convict an impeachable officer, Presiding Officer Francis Escudero said Wednesday.
Escudero said the Senate voted to set the conviction threshold at two-thirds of the present and active roster of senator-judges.
The decision overturns Escudero's July 6 ruling on the issue.
The vote was 13 in favor, one against, and six senators who did not participate.
Only Escudero cast the lone negative vote.
The senators who did not participate were Alan Peter Cayetano, Pia Cayetano, Bong Go, Imee Marcos, Robinhood Padilla, and Camille Villar.
Defense puts Duterte impeachment participation ‘ad cautelam’
Meanwhile, the Defense placed on record its reservation over the Senate impeachment court's decision to lower the conviction threshold, saying Duterte's participation in the proceedings will be made ad cautelam, or with express reservation of rights.
Lead defense counsel Sheila Sison made the manifestation after the impeachment court ruled that only senator-judges able to participate in the trial should be counted in determining the two-thirds threshold, reducing the votes needed for conviction from 16 to 14.
Sison invoked the Supreme Court's ruling in Duterte vs House of Representatives, which she said emphasized that impeachment, although conducted in a political environment, remained a constitutional and legal process bound by the Constitution.
She also cited Article 8 of the Civil Code, which provides that judicial decisions applying or interpreting the law form part of the law of the land.
“Let it be clear that the respondent does not shrink from accountability, nor does she fear the outcome of this impeachment trial,” Sison said.
She said Duterte was asking only for “the most essential and basic guarantees due to every individual — fairness and impartiality.”
Sison then formally reserved the defense's right to pursue available legal remedies, saying Duterte's participation in the trial would be undertaken “with ad cautelam.”
“We nonetheless are constrained to place on record that the respondent's participation or any participation that the respondent will have in this trial … is with ad cautelam, and that she reserves every right to exhaust all legal remedies available,” Sison said.
