Sara Duterte's defense team distances from Senate shakeup

The defense team of Vice President Sara Duterte on Tuesday distanced itself from the leadership change at the Senate, now headed by Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano—a known political ally of the Duterte family.

Atty. Michael Poa, spokesperson for the Vice President's defense team, said they do not wish to “paint a picture of bias” between one Senate leadership and another as they respect anyone who leads the upper chamber.

“Ayaw nating magsabi ng ganyan ‘no (we don’t want to say that) because if we say that, then we will probably be siguro (probably) painting a picture of bias between one leadership to another,” Poa said when asked in an Unang Balita interview if they believe the new Senate leadership would favor the Vice President more.

“We respect the Senate. Kung sino man ang liderato (whoever their leader is), we expect fairness. At syempre po ‘no, alam naman natin na ang Senado ay (of course, we know that the Senate is) really 24 independent republics and we have always believed that they will decide based on the evidence presented to them,” he added.

Senator Vicente "Tito" Sotto III was ousted as Senate President on Monday at the height of the House of Representatives’ voting on the impeachment complaints against Duterte.

He was replaced by Cayetano as the new head of the upper chamber.

At the House, lawmakers voted to impeach Duterte for the second straight year on allegations of culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust, bribery, and other high crimes.

Duterte’s lawyers have stood firm that they are prepared to defend the second-highest official in the country before the Senate should it convene as an impeachment court.

They also emphasized that it is now up to the accusers to substantiate their allegations, possibly during the impeachment trial.

“We are aware of the action taken by the plenary and with that vote to transmit the Articles of Impeachment, the burden now rests on the accusers to substantiate their claims in accordance with the Constitution, the law, and rules on evidence,” Duterte’s defense team said. —AOL, GMA News