THE defense team of Vice President Sara Duterte signaled that it may bring to the Supreme Court the issue of the voting threshold in her impeachment trial after the Senate impeachment court voted to adjust the number of votes required to convict her.
The development followed Senator-Judge Bam Aquino’s question to both the defense and prosecution on whether they would seek Supreme Court intervention if the impeachment court’s ruling on the required voting threshold did not favor their respective sides.
Defense counsel Michael Poa said the possibility of elevating the matter to the Supreme Court remained open.
“Definitely, there’s a possibility that we will be raising this to the Supreme Court,” Poa said.
He acknowledged that the Constitution grants the Senate the sole power to try and decide impeachment cases but argued that this authority does not necessarily extend to determining the constitutional voting threshold.
Prosecution counsel Chel Diokno, however, maintained that determining the applicable voting threshold falls within the exclusive authority of the impeachment court.
Aquino acknowledged that the issue could eventually reach the Supreme Court, saying it would be important to hear the Court’s position on the constitutional question.
Lead defense counsel Sheila Sison, meanwhile, said the defense would proceed with caution and exhaust all legal remedies following the impeachment court’s decision to lower the voting threshold required for conviction.
Sison said the defense wanted to place on record its concerns over the ruling while emphasizing that Duterte was not avoiding accountability or afraid of the outcome of the impeachment trial.
She cited a Supreme Court ruling in Duterte v. House of Representatives, which she said underscored that impeachment, although conducted in a political environment, remains a constitutional and legal process subject to the requirements of the Constitution.
Sison quoted the ruling as saying that the impeachment process is “constitutional and therefore legal,” and that its sui generis nature does not make it “a purely political process, isolated from the requirements of the Constitution as a whole.” She said the Supreme Court also stressed that public office is a public trust and that those participating in the impeachment process are accountable to the public.
Against this backdrop, Sison said Duterte was prepared to face the impeachment proceedings.
She said Duterte was asking only for “the most essential and basic guarantees due to every individual: fairness and impartiality” from a tribunal entrusted with applying constitutional principles.
Sison then placed on record that Duterte’s participation in the proceedings would henceforth be undertaken “with caution” following the court’s action on the voting threshold.
She said the vice president was reserving her right to pursue all legal remedies available under Philippine law and the Constitution.
