Davao City 1st District Rep. Paolo Duterte questioned the constitutionality of the Senate impeachment court’s decision to revise the voting threshold for convicting her sister, Vice President Sara Duterte, saying a majority vote does not necessarily make an interpretation constitutional.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, September 23, Paolo said the Constitution requires the concurrence of two-thirds of “all the Members of the Senate” for conviction and argued that changing how the phrase is counted raises a constitutional issue.
“Majority vote does not automatically make an interpretation constitutional,” Paolo said.
He said the question should ultimately be settled by the Supreme Court if the affected party decides to challenge the Senate’s interpretation.
“And constitutional questions should ultimately be settled by the Supreme Court—not by whoever happens to have the numbers inside the chamber,” he said.
The Senate impeachment court earlier voted to adopt a new threshold based on senator-judges who are legally and factually capable of participating in the proceedings, excluding those in certain circumstances such as detention, suspension, medical incapacity, or being beyond the Senate’s coercive processes.
Paolo said he hoped his assessment would be proven wrong but criticized what he described as the state of justice in the country.
“At the end of the day, positions in government are temporary. The Constitution is not,” he said.
The revised threshold is now the controlling interpretation for the ongoing impeachment proceedings.
