19 senators voted to archive the impeachment of VP Sara Duterte, while 5 senators voted against it.
VP SARA DUTERTE IMPEACHMENT – The Senate rejected Senate Minority Leader Tito Sotto’s motion to table Sen. Rodante Marcoleta’s motion.
Sen. Rodante Marcoleta motioned to dismiss the impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte. The voting happened during the Senate’s plenary session on Wednesday, August 6.
Marcoleta and Senate Minority Leader Tito Sotto clashed in a debate. In a previous article, Sotto motioned to table Marcoleta’s motion to dismiss the impeachment trial of VP Sara.
“Please let us allow and give chance to Supreme Court to rectify its decision which contains clear and blatant errors for their sake and for the sake of future proceedings,” he said, and Senator Risa Hontiveros agreed with this.
After hours of debate, Senate President Chiz Escudero led the Senate in voting on Sotto’s motion to table Marcoleta’s proposal. If Sotto’s motion is rejected, Marcoleta’s motion will proceed to deliberation. As a result, the Senate voted 5-19 against Sotto’s motion.
The senators who voted “Yes” to junk Sotto’s motion are:
- Alan Peter Cayetano
- Pia Cayetano
- Ronald Dela Rosa
- JV Ejercito
- Francis Escudero
- Jinggoy Estrada
- Sherwin Gatchalian
- Bong Go
- Lito Lapid
- Loren Legarda
- Rodante Marcoleta
- Imee Marcos
- Robin Padilla
- Erwin Tulfo
- Raffy Tulfo
- Joel Villanueva
- Camille Villar
- Mar Villar
- Juan Miguel Zubiri
Those who voted against it are:
- Bam Aquino
- Risa Hontiveros
- Kiko Pangilinan
- Tito Sotto
Senator Panfilo Lacson abstained as he would rather wait for the final decision of the high court and not preempt it. Alan Peter Cayetano advised Marcoleta to revise his motion by replacing the term “dismiss” with “archive,” saying that the Senate ultimately has only two options: to uphold the Supreme Court’s ruling or to reject it.
Marcoleta welcomed this.
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