House prosecutors have pushed back against allegations that ongoing or future legal actions against senators could be manipulated to alter the required voting threshold in the upcoming impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. and impeachment team spokesperson Robert Ace Barbers labeled warnings from Duterte’s camp as “speculative” after her spokesperson, lawyer Paolo Panelo, suggested criminal cases could be used to intentionally reduce the sitting number of senator-judges and lower the conviction baseline.
“Sa akin naman, kung gaya ng pananaw nila, it doesn’t necessarily mean that is the correct opinion,” Barbers stated during an online press briefing, agreeing with Abante that such claims remain purely conjectural. “Gaya ng sinabi ni Cong Benny, speculative.”
Addressing questions about potential Supreme Court challenges regarding trial rules, Abante questioned the legal basis for such a maneuver. “If you are going to go to the Supreme Court, anong magiging basis mo?” Abante asked. “Is there any violation of the Constitution?”
Abante added that the Senate should maintain full discretion to determine its own procedural rules, emphasizing that “why don’t we give the right for the senator judges to be able to change the threshold when it is necessary?”
Addressing the accusation that criminal charges against lawmakers amount to government interference, Barbers maintained that any case must be judged on its merits rather than political assumptions. “But the issue of ang kaso ba ay gawa-gawa o hindi, siguro magdedepende ito sa ebidensyang ilalatag against you,” he explained.
With procedural debates mounting ahead of the trial, Abante insisted that the Vice President focus on the core issues at hand rather than technicalities. “Ang tungkulin po ng vice president, sagutin niya lahat ng mga allegation laban sa kanya,” Abante stressed.