Marcoleta insists on voting power as senator-judge despite detention

Senator Rodante Marcoleta insists that he still has a voting capacity as a senator-judge in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte despite being detained for plunder charges.

This was disclosed in a 16-page letter dated July 20 but released to the media on Wednesday, Marcoleta had written to Escudero and Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian while he was in detention.

“There is no impairment to my legal capacity to vote as a Senator-Judge for I am not under preventive suspension,” Marcoleta wrote.

Marcoleta maintains he was not issued a preventive suspension, neither has he resigned or incapacitated.

“I have been charged and arrested for the crime of Plunder on the basis of a politically-motivated administrative determination of probable cause by the Ombudsman. I have presented myself to the custody of the PNP- CIDG (Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group). However, these circumstances do not cause my office as Senator to be vacated,” Marcoleta said.

The detained senator also voiced his objection to Escudero as the presiding officer of Duterte’s impeachment, saying that it should be the Senate President. He said that the general rule applied that the Senate President, who oversees all Senate proceedings, should also preside over the trial.

The Senate should not distort the meaning of the Constitution, Marcoleta said.

Healso reiterated his support for the 16 vote threshold to convict Duterte, as this was already agreed upon when Escudero set the rules for the impeachment proceedings on July 3. Marcoleta was arrested three days later on July 6.

“For the foregoing reasons, I vote in favor of the ruling on the 16-vote requirement to convict the impeached Vice-President,” the lawmaker said.

Marcoleta is currently detained at the Quezon City Jail for plunder after he allegedly received P75 million in undeclared campaign donations. —RF, GMA News