The House of Representatives will respect and comply with the Supreme Court’s directive to submit comments on a petition challenging the Senate impeachment court’s voting threshold. However, the prosecution panel remains fully concentrated on its primary task of presenting evidence against Vice President Sara Duterte.
During a press conference, Lanao del Sur 1st District Representative Zia Alonto Adiong described the high court’s directive as a standard legal step.
”So this is just the usual procedure that we expect from the court to issue,” Adiong said.
While Adiong did not specify if the House has already filed its formal response, he affirmed the chamber’s institutional respect for the judiciary.
”Of course we respect the [SC] and we will comply with whatever the issuances from the [SC] would cover in relation to the petition filed by two sitting senator-judges,” he stated.
The Supreme Court’s October 14 resolution ordered both the Senate impeachment court and the House to respond within five days to a petition lodged by Senators Robin Padilla and Christopher “Bong” Go, alongside other petitioners.
The petition contests the Senate’s September 23 ruling, which established that the two-thirds conviction threshold should be determined by the number of senators legally and factually capable of participating during judgment, rather than a fixed requirement.
When asked if the prosecution would take a stance to reaffirm the Senate’s rule, Adiong emphasized that settling the voting requirement falls outside the panel’s mandate.
”It’s not the position of the prosecution to reaffirm. Our position is to present the evidence necessary to prove our case,” Adiong explained, adding that neither the prosecution nor the defense had initially asked the Senate to adopt the specific voting guideline.
He noted that applying the two-thirds threshold ultimately depends on the independent judgment of individual senator-judges acting collectively as an impeachment tribunal.
Moving forward, Adiong affirmed that the prosecution panel’s attention remains fixed on evaluating financial records and testimonies to support the remaining Article II allegations against Vice President Duterte.