Metro Manila, Philippines – The constitutional requirement of at least 16 votes to convict an impeached official prevents any attempt at manipulating the impeachment process, said former Supreme Court Justice Adolfo Azcuna, who warned that lowering the threshold based on vacancies or absent senators may be open to abuse.

In an interview on The Newsmaker, Azcuna, one of the framers of the 1987 Constitution, said the two-thirds requirement is based on the Senate’s full membership of 24, even if some senators are unable to participate.

“The fact that they are absent for one reason or another, detained or hiding, does not mean that they are no longer senators,” Azcuna said.

“So as long as they remain senators, kasama iyan sa computation… two-thirds is 16 pa rin,” he added.

(Translation: So long as they remain senators, they are included in the computation… two-thirds is still 16)

Azcuna said the constitutional threshold is a safeguard against attempts to influence the outcome of an impeachment trial by reducing the number of voting senators.

“This is an intentional device by the Constitution to make sure that the removal of a high official will not be very easy to manipulate,” he said.

He said reducing the required number of votes because some senators are unable to participate could create opportunities for abuse.

“You can manipulate the numbers by arresting a number of senators for one reason or another and preventing them from voting and participating so that the two-thirds vote will become lesser and lesser by arresting more and more senators,” Azcuna said.

He added that the Constitution intentionally bases the threshold on the Senate’s full membership to prevent such scenarios.

“It is an intentional way of preventing manipulation of the threshold,” he said.

Impeachment Court presiding officer Chiz Escudero said the court will maintain the 16-votes threshold for the trial, unless otherwise revised on a ruling by the Supreme Court