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For a change, feisty Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago on Thursday appeared cool and even tried to help House prosecutors in the handling of their witnesses.

 

At the start of day's trial, Santiago asked the House prosecutors whether they consider Philippine Savings Bank President Pascual Garcia III and PSBank Katipunan branch manager Anabelle Tiongson as hostile witnesses.

 

"Your witness seems to have turned into a hostile witness because your argument is that your attachment to the supplemental petition are genuine and your witness is testifying that they are fake," she said.

 

She was referring to Tiongson's testimony on Monday that Chief Justice Renato Corona's supposed bank documents submitted by the prosecution to the impeachment court were fake. Garcia, who supported Tiongson's claim, was asked to bring the original copies of the documents.

 

Under the Court's Revised Rules of Evidence, "a witness may be considered as unwilling or hostile only if so declared by the court upon adequate showing of his adverse interest, unjustified reluctance to testify, or his having misled the party into calling him to the witness stand."

 

But lead prosecutor Niel Tupas Jr. said they do not consider the two as hostile witnesses and that they were only called as witnesses to produce documents.

 

Santiago, however, said the two will turn into hostile witnesses if the documents they produce will "contravert" the prosecution's own allegations.

 

She added that if they have the two declared as hostile witness, whatever they say will bind them.

 

"If you insist she is your witness...then you cannot impeach your own witness. You will be bound by what she says, that is my warning to you. This is just trying to be helpful to you," she said.

 

"If you do not consider these witnesses as hostile witnesses, any other statement made by them adverse to your position as prosecution will be binding on you. It's a decision you have to make," added Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, presiding officer of the impeachment court.

 

But Tupas maintained that they don't consider the two as hostile witnesses.

 

"We just reserve later on the prerogative of the prosecution to make the necessary action," he said.

 

Still, Santiago also reminded Tupas that the testimony of Tiongson may possibly be declared as hearsay depending on their handling of her testimony.

 

"She did not actually perform the entries there. She's just presenting some other person's work, so in effect, she's presenting hearsay evidence," she said, adding that the prosecution should "lay the foundation" so that the evidence will still be admitted.

 

Santiago maintained she was just trying to help the prosecution with her comments.

 

"This is sometimes allowed for a judge when the proceedings seem to be one-sided," she said. — Kimberly Jane Tan/RSJ, GMA News