Senate Impeachment Court Drops Fixed 16-Vote Rule in Duterte Trial
The Senate impeachment court has scrapped the fixed 16-vote threshold previously required to convict Vice President Sara Duterte, opting instead for a new formula that will count only senator-judges who are legally and factually able to take part when the final vote is cast.
The court approved the change on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, after granting an appeal filed by Senator-judge Erwin Tulfo. The vote was 13-1 in favor, with six senator-judges not participating in the decision.
Under the revised rule, senators who are detained, suspended, legally restrained from performing their duties, being sought by authorities with unknown whereabouts, physically or medically incapacitated, or otherwise beyond the Senate's coercive powers may be excluded from the base number used to compute the two-thirds vote needed for conviction. Any fractional result from that computation will be rounded up to the next whole number.
Presiding officer Senate President Francis "Chiz" Escudero cast the lone dissenting vote. He said the new formula will apply only to Duterte's ongoing impeachment trial and will not set a precedent binding on future impeachment courts.
The ruling changes how many "yes" votes are needed to convict, since the threshold will now be calculated based on the actual pool of eligible, participating senator-judges rather than a fixed count of 16 out of the Senate's full membership.
Source: Philippine News Agency