SC TRO sought vs impeachment court ruling on conviction threshold

MANILA – Lawyer Vic Rodriguez asked the Supreme Court to declare null and void the ruling of the Senate Impeachment Court setting the conviction threshold for the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte at 2/3 of senator-judges who are “capable of participating.” 

In his petition for certiorari questioning the decision of the impeachment court, Rodriguez also asked the high court to issue a temporary restraining order prohibiting the implementation of the September 23 ruling.

“Petitioner respectfully submits that there is a serious constitutional question, a clear need to preserve the status quo, and substantial public interest in ensuring that an impeachment conviction an act of extraordinary constitutional consequence is not rendered under a voting standard that is itself under serious constitutional challenge,” Rodriguez said.

Filing the petition as a “taxpayer” and as a “citizen,” Rodriguez said the ruling of the impeachment court potentially establishes a principle which alters the constitutional voting requirement on impeachment cases. 

“It would establish a mechanism whereby an express constitutional voting requirement could be modified by a ruling of the very body whose powers are being regulated by that constitutional provision,” Rodriguez said.

Amid the absence of four senators—Senators Ronald Dela Rosa, Jinggoy Estrada, Rodante Marcoleta, and Loren Legarda—Rodriguez asserted that absent senators are not transformed into non-members of the Senate.

Rodriguez also claimed that reducing the denominator from 24 to 20 will make conviction easier and the effect is “not neutral.” 

“Because the Tribunal’s ruling effectively modifies an express constitutional provision without constitutional authority to do so, it should be annulled for grave abuse of discretion,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez emphasized that since the Senate constitutes 24 members, conviction requires 16 affirmative votes.

“Absence, non-participation, abstention, temporary incapacity, or inability to participate in the proceeding does not, standing alone, remove an incumbent Senator from the constitutional membership of the Senate,” Rodriguez said.