Angara to vote first, Enrile last

The historic vote on Tuesday on the conviction or acquittal of Chief Justice Renato Corona will follow the alphabetical seating arrangement in the Senate.

This may sound elementary, but in recent caucuses, 23 senators grappled with a rather minor question about the sequence to be followed by the chamber sitting as an impeachment tribunal.

“Why can’t we start with (letter) V for a change?” Senator Edgardo Angara asked.

The Senate has always voted in alphabetical order, so Angara votes first.

The debate was settled when the senators, including Angara, decided to stick with the old rules.

The alphabetical listing shows Senator Joker Arroyo next to Angara, followed by Senators Alan Peter and Pia Cayetano, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Franklin Drilon, Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, Francis Escudero, Teofisto Guingona III, Gregorio Honasan II, Panfilo Lacson, Manuel Lapid, Loren Legarda, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Sergio Osmeña III, Francis Pangilinan, Aquilino Pimentel III, Ralph Recto, Ramon Revilla Jr., Vicente Sotto III, Antonio Trillanes IV and Manuel Villar.

The Senate rules give Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, as the head of the chamber, the privilege to vote last.

Race to 16 or 8?

This wisdom of voting alphabetically came to the fore in recent caucuses because the chamber needs the vote of at least two-thirds of its members, or 16 senators, to convict Corona, but only eight votes to acquit him.

Sotto, the majority leader, said the spotlight would not only focus on Angara, whose vote could set the tone for the whole exercise Tuesday.

The senator casting the 16th vote could hog the limelight, too, according to Sotto, but he did not say whether the vote would be because of “peer pressure,” or public opinion.

As things stand, the public is critical of the Chief Justice’s competence to continue heading the judiciary, as shown by recent surveys conducted by Pulse Asia and Social Weather Stations.

Psychological threshold

A senator, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, predicted that the vote of the 15th or 16th senator could have a bandwagon effect on the votes of the remaining senators.

“Once we have the 15th guilty vote—we’ve already reached a psychological threshold that would have a bearing on the succeeding votes. No one wants to be identified with the losers anyway,” the senator said.