00:00The basis of computing, the two-thirds must be the number of senators who are qualified to vote, not the
00:0624 in the present Senate.
00:09Constitutional interpretation cannot always stop at abstract mathematics.
00:15We must look at the intent and the purpose of constitutional provisions.
00:20Article 11, Section 36 should have simply stated that the number of votes to convict is 16, period.
00:37But Article 11, Section 36 did not say so.
00:44Instead, the language used a fraction.
00:50No person shall be convicted in an impeachment case without the concurrence of two-thirds of all the members of
01:01the Senate.
01:20Thetricum Doesn't matter.
01:22Well, the notion of communion is all not enough to trust the number of voters
01:50So that is an orthogonal will the third-brush experiment.
02:00We also have decisions of the Supreme Court, which clearly decreed that public officers facing criminal cases in court cannot,
02:07during the pendency of their cases, practice their profession, nor hold office, elective or appointive, while in detention.
02:16Clearly then, the basis of computing, the two-thirds must be the number of senators who are qualified to vote,
02:23not the 24 in the present Senate.
02:453 plus 3 equals 6. 2 times 10 equals always 20. Therefore, 24 multiplied by two-thirds is always 16
02:57in the abstract.
03:01But not always in reality. There is a difference between obstruction and reality.
03:24Reality, sometimes, your honors, changes the denominator in mathematics.
03:30In the same way, constitutional interpretation cannot always stop at abstract mathematics.
03:39We must look at the intent and the purpose of constitutional provisions, the circumstances in which they operate, and the
03:49goals they seek to achieve.
04:12If that is the intent.
04:15Article 11, Article 11, Section 36 should have simply stated that the number of votes to convict is 16, period.
04:32But Article 11, Section 36 did not say so. Instead, the language used a fraction. It says two-thirds of
04:51all members of the Senate.
05:04A strict, stand-alone, literal interpretation of Article 11, Section 36 may result in absurdities.
05:19And may result in injustices which will defeat the purpose of the Constitution.
05:52As long as they are members of the Senate, they constitute the denominator and computing the threshold of two-thirds,
06:03because all means all.
06:22The two-thirds of all members of the Senate.
06:25The two-thirds requirement functions as an internal check.
06:29It disperses the power to convict widely enough that no single faction, however large, can unilaterally topple another branch of
06:41government.
06:42The two-thirds will enact theairs.
07:12We Lap one, Chief, as Car open, is in charge ofСТRAC, and then the government remains under the ground.
07:15The matter in issue in this Avellino v. Cuenco case was purely relative to the determination of quorum in a
07:21Senate exclusively acting as a legislative body and performing exclusively legislative functions and not as an impeachment court.
07:45From the case of Avellino v. Cuenco, there are several other cases up to the 2026 case of Generillo v.
07:55Senate, with which your honors must be familiar since it also involved the present Senate and the present Vice President.
08:21The Avellino case cannot be cited as a perfect president that will resolve the problem of how to properly interpret
08:36Article 11, Section 36 of the 1987
08:42Constitution.
08:44First, what was resolved in Avellino is the right number to constitute a quorum, not the right number to convict
09:01a respondent in an impeachment case.
09:15The Avellino v. Cuenco case is not applicable here because, to start with, it was decided on the basis of
09:25the 1935 Constitution, where the wording involved was different.
09:31All right.
09:36Thank you, sir.
09:41Thank you, sir.
09:43The following is, only when you commit grave abuse of discretion, not just abuse of discretion, but grave abuse of
09:52discretion, should you be set, should your decision be set aside.
10:07So from stage one to the last stage,
10:11your power is given to the Senate impeachment court as the sole judge.
10:28Maaring makaroon ng ground for intervention by the Supreme Court
10:37if someone who remains a senator,
10:41although he or she did not participate at all in the trial for one reason or another,
10:50but in counting the denominator, such person is not included.
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