Presiding Officer Sen. Chiz Escudero stood as the lone senator to oppose lowering the threshold to convict Vice President Sara Duterte in her impeachment trial, with six minority members abstaining and 13 voting in favor.
Thirteen senators—the 12‑member majority bloc plus Sen. Mark Villar—backed Sen. Erwin Tulfo’s motion to reconsider the July 6 ruling that set the bar at 16 votes, or two‑thirds of the 24‑member chamber.
On the trial’s opening day, Escudero ruled that conviction required at least 16 votes, interpreting the Constitution’s two‑thirds requirement as applying to all 24 senators.
“With 24 members of the Senate, a literal interpretation of this means that conviction requires the affirmative vote of at least 16 senator‑judges,” Escudero previously explained.
Escudero presided as impeachment court chair and recognized the chamber’s authority to decide procedural matters by majority vote, implementing the decision reached.
Four senators have been absent: Sens. Jinggoy Estrada and Rodante Marcoleta, detained on plunder and related charges; Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa, away amid an ICC warrant; and Sen. Loren Legarda, on extended medical leave for a lung ailment.
With only 20 senators counted, conviction now requires 14 votes instead of 16.
Before the vote, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano argued the Senate should not revisit the threshold mid‑trial and urged the Supreme Court to settle the constitutional issue first. The chamber rejected his appeal, allowing deliberations to proceed.
Last week, the impeachment court invited retired Chief Justices Artemio Panganiban, Reynato Puno, Hilario Davide Jr., and Associate Justice Adolfo Azcuna to serve as amici curiae, or friends of the court, to offer their perspectives on the voting threshold.
Panganiban, Puno, and Davide argued that the voting threshold should be based on the number of senator‑judges actively participating in the trial. Azcuna, a framer of the 1987 Constitution, took a different view, saying the two‑thirds concurrence requirement applies to the entire Senate membership.
The Senate’s final resolution on the threshold will set the voting framework for Duterte’s eventual judgment.
