Atty. Israelito Torreon on Sunday said the Senate cannot override the Constitution’s two-thirds requirement for an impeachment conviction, saying that 16 votes are needed to convict Vice President Sara Duterte.
Torreon said the Constitution is clear that “No person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of all the Members of the Senate.”
Since the Senate has 24 members, he said two-thirds means 16 votes, regardless of whether securing the required number becomes difficult during the impeachment proceedings.
He said the constitutional requirement cannot be reduced by a simple majority vote of senators.
“It would therefore be highly irregular and constitutionally questionable to argue that the denominator for determining the two-thirds vote may itself be lowered merely by a simple majority vote of the Senators,” Torreon said.
According to Torreon, doing so would allow a simple majority to effectively change or dilute a requirement that the Constitution deliberately placed at a supermajority level.
He noted that the supermajority requirement for impeachment convictions has been part of the country’s constitutional framework, with the 1935 Constitution requiring three-fourths of all senators and the 1973 and 1987 Constitutions requiring two-thirds.
Torreon also cited the Supreme Court’s recognition that an impeachment conviction requires the concurrence of two-thirds of all Senate members.
He said the constitutional threshold cannot be changed in the middle of the proceedings simply because 16 votes may be difficult to obtain.
“The constitutional finish line cannot be moved in the middle of the proceedings simply because securing 16 votes has become difficult,” Torreon said.
For Torreon, the issue is not simply about Duterte but about adherence to the Constitution.#