Manila, Sept. 18 -- House of Representatives impeachment team adviser and spokesperson Ace Barbers on Friday rejected claims that criminal cases involving senator-judges were fabricated to bar them from participating in Vice President Sara Z. Duterte's impeachment trial and potentially lower the number of voting threshold for her conviction.

Barbers said the legal troubles confronting individual senators should be judged based on facts and evidence, rather than automatically portraying them as manipulation of impeachment proceedings.

"All these things are not fabricated. Parang sinisisi pa 'yung gobyerno na kaya merong mga kasong ganito, eh dahil inimbento (It seems like the government is being blamed for these cases, as if they just in...