Sara Duterte: No formal notice yet for me to appear as witness in impeachment trial

Vice President Sara Duterte on Friday said she has yet to receive any formal document requiring her to appear as a witness in her impeachment trial.

In an ambush interview, Duterte said she could not yet comment on matters concerning her possible appearance because she had not received any official document.

“Hindi ko muna masagot iyan dahil wala pa namang papel o dokumento na nagsasabi na kailangan kong mag-appear as witness for the prosecution,” she said.

(I can't answer that right now because there is no paper or document yet that says I have to appear as a witness for the prosecution.)

Earlier, the House prosecution panel said they intend to present Duterte herself in her own impeachment trial.

“All of these pawns and castles and horses and bishops point to only one person and that accountable person is the Vice President," Private prosecutor Lorna Kapunan earlier said.

"In lieu of presenting 15 other witnesses, we will be presenting the Vice President herself for Article 1 of the Articles of Impeachment [on confidential funds],” she added.

“Unless the Vice President herself appears and respects the process of this impeachment court and affirms, confirms her allegation of innocence, Your Honor…the people will never know if the prosecution's case based on witnesses and evidence will point to the Senator judges, Your Honor, exercising the lens of political neutrality, and towards the end, [if] justice will be served,” Kapunan pointed out.

Lead defense counsel Sheila Sison, in response, said issuing a subpoena or “testimonial compulsion” to the Vice President before her impeachment trial violates her Constitutional right as provided under Article 3, Section 17 which states that “No person shall be compelled to be a witness against himself No person shall be compelled to be a witness against himself.”

“This right is absolute and this is not only a simple right or a statutory right. This is a fundamental right. This is a right emanating from the Constitution itself and one that emanates from the guarantees under Article 3 of our 1987 Constitution,” she added.

Sison also said that Duterte is present in the trial through her counsel.

“If respondent is not interested in this trial, she would not have even sent her lawyers to defend her in this case,” she said. —VAL, GMA News