Senator Rodante Marcoleta said Thursday he will not ask the Sandiganbayan to grant him temporary release to vote on whether to revise the 16-vote requirement for conviction amid Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial.
“No, I will not move for a furlough just to vote for the threshold,” Marcoleta said in a press briefing after his bail hearing in the plunder indictment at the Sandiganbayan.
He said the 16-vote conviction threshold is already in the Constitution, adding, “Nobody has a right to change the Constitution.”
Marcoleta faces a plunder case for receiving PHP75 million in contributions for his Senate bid in the 2025 midterm elections.
During the anti-graft court hearing, a witness testified that Marcoleta solicited donations from businessman Aristotle Viray.
When asked by Sandiganbayan 3rd Division chairperson Karl Miranda, Field Investigation Bureau Director Maria Melinda Mananghaya-Henson of the Office of the Ombudsman said, "It was accused Marcoleta who actually solicited (the donation)” from Viray.
Marcoleta was a member of the House of Representatives when he ran for the Senate.
Marcoleta, Viray, former Anakalusugan party-list Rep. Michael Defensor, and businessman Joseph Espiritu are co-accused in the plunder case. (PNA)
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