Manila, Sept. 23 -- The Senate impeachment court on Wednesday cleared the way for a vote on the disputed conviction threshold in Vice President Sara Duterte's trial after rejecting Senator-Judge Alan Peter Cayetano's attempt to stop the court from reopening the issue.

Thirteen senator-judges voted against Cayetano's appeal, six supported it, while Senator-Judge Mark Villar abstained.

A successful appeal would have halted the planned vote on Senator-Judge Erwin Tulfo's challenge to the existing interpretation requiring 16 votes to convict Duterte.

Cayetano had raised a point of order questioning both the impeachment court's authority and the timing of its move to revisit the threshold, arguing that the issue had already been settled by ...