Which is to say, the Senate as a whole, sitting as an impeachment court, delivered a vote that stunned the defense, and was beyond even the most optimistic expectations of the prosecution. Enrile’s bloc – no quotation marks – voted solidly to acquit, and created the momentum that caused the so-called “Villar bloc” to shrug and fray before Villar’s very eyes. Given that Senators Joker Arroyo, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, and Bongbong Marcos were the only three hard-“acquit” votes that pundits could agree on, a 20-3 vote was the closest the Senate could get to a unanimous decision. The end result achieved two things: It strengthened the standing of the impeachment court, while also knocking the wind out of any defense contingencies to immediately protest and lay the predicate for an appeal before the Supreme Court.
