At least 5 law firms helping House prosecution in VP Sara's impeachment trial

At least five law firms will help the House prosecution panel in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, one of the prosecutors told reporters on Thursday.

San Juan Rep. Ysabel Maria Zamora said the panel met on Thursday to discuss its preparations for the trial, including the presentation of the articles of impeachment before the Senate impeachment court on June 2.

Asked how many private lawyers were helping the House prosecution team, Zamora said, "Hindi ko masabi just because I don't know if they're complete." 

"We have, you know, we have many lawyers, some of them coming from the same firm. So we can count that as one or as several... But definitely more than the public prosecutors," Zamora said.

How many law firms are involved? "Hindi ko masabi (I can't say). Definitely, at least five. Maybe ten."

“We're doing the same preparations that we've been doing. For example, we've had a mock trial before. We prepared the judicial affidavits for the witnesses. We examined witnesses," Zamora said.

"We're not interviewing witnesses now, at least in the article that I'm handling. But we're reviewing all of the documentary evidence that we already have on hand,” she added.

Among the pieces of evidence that will be presented are the reportedly fictitious names that received confidential funds from the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education.

“I think it will be difficult to acquit the vice president in view of the numerous pieces of evidence that we have. Kumbaga, yung senators for us, sila yung haharap sa public kapag nag-acquit sila sa dami ng ebidensya na nakalap na namin,” Zamora said.

The impeachment complaint provides for seven Articles of Impeachment, namely:

1. conspiracy to assassinate President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. First Lady Liza Marcos, and Speaker Martin Romualdez;
2. malversation of P612.5 Million in confidential funds with questionable liquidation documents;
3. bribery and corruption in the DepEd during Duterte’s tenure by handing out cash to former DepEd Undersecretary Gloria Jumamil-Mercado (Procurement Head), Bids and Awards Committee Member Resty Osias, DepEd Chief Accountant Rhunna Catalan and Special Disbursing Officer Edward Fajarda;
4. unexplained wealth and failure to disclose assets in the Vice President’s Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth where her wealth increased by four times from 2007 from 2017;
5. involvement in extrajudicial killings in Davao City;
6. destabilization, insurrection, and public disorder efforts, which include: boycotting the State of the Nation Address (SONA) while declaring herself "designated survivor," leading rallies calling for Marcos' resignation, obstructing congressional investigations by ordering subordinates not to comply with subpoenas, threatening bodily harm against the First Couple and Romualdez, among others;
7. the totality of the Vice President’s conduct as the second highest official of the land.

The president’s offer of reconciliation to the Dutertes was not discussed in the meeting.

“It wasn't even mentioned but I would think everyone present in our meeting, the prosecution, the prosecutors, the private lawyers also are, I would think that everyone's in agreement that we will proceed with the impeachment simply because it's our duty to do so,” Zamora said.

Senate President Chiz Escudero’s letter to the House of Representatives regarding the presentation of the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate on June 2 was one of the topics of discussion when the House Prosecution Panel resumed its weekly meeting this morning.

Of the 11 prosecutors, five attended - Reps Romeo Acop of Antipolo City 2nd district, Jonathan Keith Flores of Bukidnon 2nd district, Arnan Panaligan of Oriental Mindoro 1st district, Ysabel Maria Zamora of San Juan, and Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez of 1-Rider Partylist.

“So we resumed our meeting after the elections and we discussed the letter of the Senate President sent to the House of Representatives, that we will present the articles of impeachment on June 2 before the Senate,” Zamora told reporters in an online interview.

“They expect us to read the Articles of Impeachment. In fact, the Senate, I believe it was the Senate who sent the Congress video of how it is done in the States. So while hindi naman namin siyempre eksaktong magagaya yun, there's a reading of the Articles of Impeachment,” she added.

The House Prosecution Panel has yet to discuss how the Articles of Impeachment will be presented, if there will be only one prosecutor who will read all seven articles or if a prosecutor will be assigned for every article.

ML Partylist Rep-elect Leila de Lima and Akbayan Partylist Rep-elect Chel Diokno were not present in this morning’s meeting as their term will start on June 30 and they need to be elected in plenary.

Zamora said each prosecutor has been assigned to handle three Articles of Impeachment. –NB, GMA Integrated News