Sen. Rodante Marcoleta, who is detained on a plunder case, said he may no longer try to participate in Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial “if the Impeachment Court ultimately proceeds in a way that will desecrate the Constitution.”
Marcoleta has been unable to participate in any of the proceedings because of his detention, but he earlier wrote to the Senate to say that he can vote as a senator-judge in the trial because he has not been placed under preventive suspension.
In a statement posted on his Facebook page on Monday, Marcoleta reiterated his opposition to the designation of Sen. Francis Escudero as Presiding Officer and also opposed the attempt by the Senate Impeachment Court to interpret the constitutional provision on the voting threshold for conviction in an impeachment trial.
The Impeachment Court is deliberating on whether the two-thirds vote to convict should be based on the current 24 members of the Senate or on the number of actual senators participating in the proceedings.
“In my humble view, the Senate cannot invoke its internal rules to rewrite a voting threshold prescribed by the Constitution. The framers of the highest law of the land expressed that threshold in plain and deliberate language precisely to prevent political manipulation and preserve the integrity of the impeachment process,” Marcoleta said.
He also said the Senate’s authority to make rules for the impeachment trial was only “procedural, not constituent.”
He said the rules cannot alter the Constitution.
“If the Impeachment Court eventually adopts a threshold that deviates from the Constitution’s plain language and meaning, while the trial proceeds under a presiding authority of doubtful constitutional validity, these twin violations would fatally taint the legitimacy and integrity of the impeachment trial,” he said.
He warned that such a move could be challenged before the Supreme Court.
“I therefore cannot lend my participation to such an infirm process as it may be construed as acquiescence,” he said.
The Impeachment Court has sought the views of retired Supreme Court justices as amicus curiae on this issue.
Retired Chief Justice Reynato Puno said the Senate, as the Impeachment Court, has the power to interpret the “meaning and nuances” of the provision in the Constitution stating that no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of all the members of the Senate.
Puno said the Senate has judicial power in this matter. He also said there is no provision stating that the Supreme Court can review how the Senate should conduct its trial.