IN an impeachment trial, arithmetic is never merely arithmetic. Every number carries constitutional meaning and public trust. The question before the Senate — how many votes are needed to convict Vice President Sara Duterte — must be answered with precision and no partisan shortcuts. After all, impeachment of a duly elected official carries gigantic weight in a democracy.
First, a distinction. The House of Representatives impeaches; the Senate does not. The Senate sits as an impeachment court and decides whether to convict or acquit. Article XI, Section 3(6) of the 1987 Constitution says no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of “two-thirds of all the Members of the Senate.” Since the Senate has 24 members, the ordinary answer is 16.
That remains the controlling rule. The Senate court’s presiding officer Sen. Francis Escudero ruled at the opening of the trial that conviction requires a “hard 16.” Defenders of this reading say “all the Members” means the entire Senate, not only those present or able to vote. Detention, suspension, illness or absence does not erase a senator’s office. Lowering the number during an ongoing case may look like changing the rules halfway through the game.
But there is another constitutional argument. Four senator-judges have not been participating: Jinggoy Estrada and Rodante Marcoleta are detained, Ronald dela Rosa is at large, and Loren Legarda is on medical leave abroad. Former chief justice Hilario Davide Jr. argues that senators under legal or physical restraints should not be counted because “members” must mean those capable of performing their duties. He draws support, by analogy, from the Avelino quorum case, although it did not involve an impeachment verdict.
If the lawful voting base is reduced to 20, some statements describe the needed number as 13. Yet two-thirds of 20 is 13.33; under the rule that a supermajority must reach the threshold, that would require 14. This point deserves an explicit ruling. Constitutional justice cannot depend on casual rounding.
The Supreme Court has held in one case that “A cardinal rule in statutory construction is that when the law is clear and free from any doubt or ambiguity, there is no room for construction or interpretation.
Indeed, the framers of the Constitution could have indicated the qualifier, “of all Members present.” Absent the clear intent of the framers to indicate a qualifier, the basis of the fractional requirement remains the total number of all the elected senators, which is 24. As long as the other four senators are not removed, died or expelled, they remain as members of the Senate.
The Senate has asked former justices to advise it, and the prosecution and defense are scheduled to argue the issue on Sept. 23. Until the impeachment court overturns Escudero’s ruling, 16 remains the requirement. No smaller number is settled.
In Islam, amanah means a trust carried faithfully. Public office is an amanah, but so is judgment. Neither Vice President Duterte nor her accusers should receive a rule designed for the desired result. The evidence must decide the case, and the Constitution must decide the number.
Our democracy will live with this precedent after today’s alliances have changed. The Senate must explain who counts, why they count and how the fraction is computed. A verdict earns public respect only when the evidence and the rules withstand the same light.