The number of votes required to convict in an impeachment trial is not set at 16 and can vary depending on certain factors, according to retired Chief Justice Reynato Puno.
Puno noted that the 1987 Constitution did not use the number 16 in determining the number of votes required for a conviction in an impeachment trial, instead resorting to the fraction “two-thirds of all members of the Senate.”
He also warned that setting the number of votes to convict could give rise to absurdities and injustices.
“By using two thirds, the number of votes to convict will have to move depending on certain factors. But more than that, Your Honors, a strict, stand-alone, literal interpretation, of Article 11, Section 3(6), may result in absurdities, and may result in injustices, which will defeat the purpose of the Constitution,” he said.
He called for a contextual interpretation of the Constitution, saying the provision on the vote to convict should not be interpreted in isolation.
“It is functional, because it will give the senators the flexibility to consider circumstances that will legally prevent a senator from functioning as a member of the Senate. Your Honors, this approach will give these senators the right to consider whether senators who are already dead, resigned, or expelled, should still be counted in determining two-thirds of all the members,” he said.
He said the provisions of the Constitution should not be interpreted narrowly or pedantically.
“The prescriptions therein are not mathematical formulas. Hence, its words are not to be construed to yield fixed and rigid answers, but as impressed with the necessary attributes of flexibility and accommodation to enable them to meet adequately what problems are in store,” he said.
Puno is one of the amici curiae whose opinion was sought by the Impeachment Court on the issue of determining the two-thirds vote to convict in Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial.