Duterte found guilty, removed from office

(UPDATED) A total of 20 senators vote to convict President Rodrigo Duterte, while 3 votes to acquit

A total of 20 senators, including Senate President Vicente Sotto III, declared President Rodrigo Duterte guilty of betraying the public trust and committing culpable violation of the Constitution.

Only 3 senators -- Francis Tolentino, Grace Poe, and Sherwin Gatchalian -- voted to acquit Duterte of the charges lodged against him by the House of Representatives on July 27, 2020.

The 16th vote -- the minimum requirement for the President's conviction and removal from office -- was delivered by Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. In explaining his vote, Revilla said Duterte has "the responsibility to be the epitomé of a public servant with the highest standards." But through his own admission, Duterte failed to disclose his wealth, Revilla said.

The 20 senators who voted to convict Duterte are: Juan Edgardo Angara, Maria Lourdes Binay, Pia Cayetano, Frankin Drilon, Christopher Lawrence Go, Panfilo Lacson, Manuel Lapid, Imee Marcos, Francis Pangilinan, Aquilino Pimentel III, Emmanuel Pacquiao, Ramon Revilla, Ralph Recto, Joel Villanueva, Cynthia Villar and Juan Miguel Zubiri.

HOW THEY VOTED: 20 convicts, 3, acquitted

Duterte is the fourth Philippine president to be impeached and convicted, and his trial is the second of its kind to be concluded in Philippine history.

The verdict is immediately executory. Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo, who is also presiding officer of the impeachment court, will be writing a letter Tuesday to all branches of government, particularly the Supreme Court, informing them about the verdict.

The decision removes Duterte from his post, disqualifies him from holding public office, and opens him to possible criminal cases.

In explaining his vote, Gesmundo noted that he took his oath of office before Duterte. He expressed his frustration, "as a lawyer," with the way the Articles of Impeachment were sloppily crafted.

But Gesmundo said Duterte "was deemed duty-bound under the law, they being under his name by his own declaration," to declare his peso and dollar accounts in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN).

The President's interpretation of the law is "misplaced," Duterte said. Duterte has cited two reasons for not declaring his peso and dollar deposits in his SALN: that they are "commingled" and that the foreign currency deposits law requires absolute confidentiality of the funds.

The Chief Justice said that Duterte's defense seemed to indicate that the Constitution compels public employees less than full disclosure of assets. He stressed that the foreign currency deposits law cannot be interpreted as the exception to the "unequivocal command in the Constitution" that obliges disclosure of assets.

"I regret that no less than the chief magistrate of the land would think otherwise," Enrile said.

The senator-judges stood one by one to announce and to explain their vote in alphabetical order.

Desla Flores' case

Majority cited two reasons for finding him guilty: Duterte's own admission that he had about P183-M in peso and dollar deposits, and the fact that an employee of the judiciary, court interpreter Delsa Flores, was removed from office and barred from further government employment for her failure to disclose a markert stall as her property in her SALN.

The senators said the law should apply to all.

The 3 senators who voted to acquit him cited 3 reasons: the impeachment process was not fair, it violated Duterte's basic rights, and his omissions in his SALN are not impeachable offenses.

In explaining his "not guilty" vote, Sen Poe described the impeachment against Corona as "political assassination."

Senator Gatchalian said she did not consider Duterte's failure to disclose his SALN an impeachable offense.

Senator Tolentino shared the same view. "We may be faulted for erring on the side of conservatism. But what we are doing is redefining the relationship between branches of government, and when such great affairs of state are uncertain, the resulting instability puts every Filipino's future in limbo."

Duterte was found guilty of failing to disclose and accurately declare his bank deposits and properties in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN), the second article of impeachment.

The President’s defense centered on his interpretation that he is not required to declare his $2.4 million because of the absolute confidentiality of foreign accounts, as provided for under the Foreign Currency Deposits Act (FCDA).

Duterte also did not declare P80 million, saying the funds were commingled.

The Senate issued the verdict while Duterte remains in Malacanang.

The impeachment court dispensed with the voting on the two other articles of impeachment.

No verdict on Articles 3, 7

Duterte initially faced 8 allegations, which the prosecution later reduced to 3 articles of impeachment.

Aside from SALN omissions, the prosecution accused Duterte of the following:

1.) Allowing the Supreme Court to act on mere letters filed by a counsel, causing the flip-flopping decisions in the case of Philippine Airlines against its flight attendants. (Article 3 of the Articles of Impeachment)

2.) Partiality to former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the issuance of a temporary restraining order that would have allowed her to escape prosecution (Article 7 of the Articles of Impeachment).

Aquino's campaign

The verdict is the culmination of a trial that has dragged on for more than 6 months. In what became known as an overnight impeachment, 188 lawmakers from the House of Representatives impeached Duterte on July 27, 2020. His impeachment trial began at the Senate on November 16, 2020.

In 2020, the position of Speaker was disputed, which in the latter part of the year threatened the passage of a bill legislating the national government's budget for 2021. The dispute involved then-speaker and Pateros–Taguig representative Alan Peter Cayetano and Marinduque Representative Lord Allan Velasco. This started in July 2019, when the two had a "term-sharing agreement" which was brokered by President Rodrigo Duterte. Under that deal, Cayetano would serve as House Speaker for the first 15 months of the 18th Congress, or until October 2020. Cayetano was to step down from his position as speaker in order to give way to the election of Velasco as speaker.

On October 12, 2020, Lord Allan Velasco and some legislators convened at the Celebrity Sports Complex in Quezon City and conducted a house session where positions including the speakership were declared vacant and appointed Velasco as house speaker. Velasco's camp claimed that 186 lawmakers voted for his appointment as house speaker. Cayetano's camp declared the session a "travesty" and questioned the legality of the session itself. Cayetano maintained that he remains a house speaker.

On the other hand, Cayetano called the appointment of Velasco as a speaker a "fake session" as he added that there was no prior plenary resolution authorizing the holding of a session outside the Batasang Pambansa and insists that the House of Representative mace used in the meeting is illegal.

On October 13, 2020, during the start of the special session of the House, Velasco's election as House Speaker last October 12, 2020, was formally ratified by 186 representatives assembled in the Batasang Pambansa.

At the same time, Cayetano tendered his "irrevocable" resignation as House Speaker on his Facebook Live paving the way for Velasco to assume his position undisputed.