In the halls of the Philippine Senate, a question older than any single trial has resurfaced: what does a supermajority truly mean when the body itself is incomplete? Four retired Supreme Court justices offered the impeachment court competing visions of constitutional fidelity — one rooted in the fixed certainty of 16 votes, another in the living logic of proportional thresholds — as the fate of Vice President Sara Duterte hangs on which interpretation prevails. The absence of four senators, each for reasons ranging from detention to flight from international justice, has transformed a seeming