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Retired Supreme Court Justice Adolfo Azcuna told the Senate impeachment court that the two-thirds threshold to convict Vice President Sara Duterte is fixed at 16 votes out of all 24 senators — not 16 out of however many show up. Pressed by Sen. Panfilo Lacson on a scenario where only 15 senators are available, Azcuna didn't flinch: no 16, no conviction, full stop.
With four senator-judges absent and Presiding Officer Escudero set to cast a vote, four retired Supreme Court justices will advise the impeachment court before its Sept. 23 ruling on the threshold needed to convict Vice President Sara Duterte.
With four senator-judges unable to take part in Sara Duterte's impeachment trial, the Senate impeachment court will decide by Sept. 23 whether the 16-vote conviction threshold should still count absent members — a ruling that could reshape the case's outcome.
Vice President Sara Duterte called for a speedier impeachment trial after weather forced a second straight day of cancellations, but prosecution counsel Lorna Kapunan countered that Duterte has yet to explain why ₱2.3 billion in confidential and other Office of the Vice President funds were allegedly used outside their intended purpose.
Manuel Bonoan told the Sandiganbayan every senator received at least ₱500 million — and committee chairs up to ₱1 billion — from a DPWH-administered fund that channeled ₱21 billion in FY 2025 alone, an allegation three successive Senate presidents have each denied knowledge of.
The Third Division's order came a day after Marcoleta withdrew his motion to quash and pleaded not guilty to plunder and anti-gift law charges over an alleged undeclared ₱75-million campaign donation — a plea that under the Anti-Plunder Act can trigger preventive suspension from the Senate.
Committee chair Sen. Erwin Tulfo says the panel will examine Sen. Panfilo Lacson's claims of double-funded slope-protection projects once he formally submits them — reviving Lacson's public feud with Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano over projects in Cayetano's home turf of Taguig.
A July 7 letter from Vice President Sara Duterte asked the Senate to shoulder catering costs for her defense team and use only her office's accredited caterer — a request Sen. Panfilo Lacson says would be "highly questionable and irregular" under government procurement rules, and which the Senate has so far declined to grant.
Presiding officer Francis Escudero ruled the records, covering peso accounts, 19 corporate entities, and years predating Duterte's vice presidency, are "prima facie relevant" to the unexplained-wealth allegations in her impeachment trial.
Former Senate President Franklin Drilon warned that any attempt to suppress evidence in Vice President Sara Duterte's impeachment trial could trigger the kind of public backlash that toppled Joseph Estrada in 2001, as the Senate's pre-trial conference resumed June 22 with three of four articles still to be marked — and a sealed BIR box, COA disallowances, and P6.77 billion in flagged transactions among the documents awaiting examination.
