MANILA, Philippines — Lawyer Ernesto Francisco Jr. has asked the Supreme Court to nullify the Senate Impeachment Court’s Sept. 23, 2026 ruling that changed the voting threshold for convicting Vice President Sara Duterte, arguing that the Senate cannot alter a requirement set in the 1987 Constitution.
Francisco filed a 112-page petition seeking a Status Quo Ante Order to suspend implementation of the new rule while the Supreme Court considers his challenge.
He accused the Senate Impeachment Court of grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction when 13 senator-judges adopted a new interpretation of the constitutional requirement for an impeachment conviction.
Francisco’s petition marks the second challenge filed before the Supreme Court against the Sept. 23 ruling.
Under the new controlling ruling, the phrase “all members of the Senate” refers only to senators who remain legally and factually capable of participating in the impeachment proceedings when the Senate votes.
The ruling excludes senators who face detention or suspension, senators whose whereabouts remain unknown while authorities seek them, individuals with physical or medical incapacity, and others who fall outside the Senate’s coercive processes.
Francisco argued that Article XI, Section 3(6), together with Article VI, Section 2 of the 1987 Constitution, requires 16 votes to convict an impeached official, based on the Senate’s full constitutional membership of 24 senators.
He said the Senate effectively rewrote the Constitution when it replaced the phrase “all members of the Senate” with a standard based on whether senators can participate in the proceedings.
“Substituting ‘all members of the Senate’ with ‘those members who, at the time of the vote, remain legally and factually capable of participating in the proceedings,’ constitutes a rewriting of the Constitution,” Francisco said in his petition.
Francisco urged the Supreme Court to intervene before the Senate holds the final vote in Duterte’s impeachment trial.
He warned that failure to act before the vote could further deepen political divisions and lead to political instability.
Francisco filed the petition as a citizen, taxpayer and member of the Philippine Bar. He described the case as a nonpartisan effort to uphold what he considers the constitutional limits of the Senate Impeachment Court.
The Supreme Court has yet to issue an order on Francisco’s request for a Status Quo Ante Order.
