House prosecutors to join Senate impeachment court's May 18 meet

The 11-member House prosecution panel will be physically present for the scheduled convening of the Senate impeachment court on Monday next week, Bicol Saro party-list Rep. Terry Ridon said.

Ridon – one of the prosecutors on the House panel – made the remarks after Senate President Alan Cayetano announced that the Senate impeachment court will convene on Monday, May 18, at 3 p.m.

“Nagpapasalamat po ang House prosecution panel sa pagbanggit po ni Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano na iko-convene na po ang Senate impeachment court laban kay Vice President Sara Duterte,” Ridon said.

(The House prosecution panel is thankful that Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano announced that the Senate impeachment court against Vice President Sara Duterte will convene.)

“Maaasahan din po na ‘yon pong kabuuan ng House prosecution panel ay magpupunta rin po dito po sa araw na ito para saksihan ‘yon pong pag-convene ng Senate impeachment court,” he added.

(You can be assured that the entire House prosecution panel will be there on that day to witness the convening of the House impeachment court.)

Aside from Ridon, other members of the House prosecution panel include:

• Rep. Gerville Luistro of Batangas
• Rep. Ramon Rodriguez of 1-Rider party-list
• Rep. Ysabel Zamora of San Juan City
• Rep. Lorenz Defensor of Iloilo
• Rep. Jose Manuel “Chel” Diokno of Akbayan party-list
• Rep. Leila de Lima of ML party-list
• Rep. Arlene Bag-ao of Dinagat Islands
• Rep. Jonathan Keith Flores of Bukidnon
• Rep. Lordan Suan of Cagayan de Oro and
• Rep. Joel Chua of Manila

Of the 11 prosecutors, only Flores did not vote yes to impeach Duterte.

The Articles of Impeachment were transmitted to the Senate by the House on Wednesday night, two days after 257 House members voted to impeach the Vice President.

This number is more than the constitutionally-required one-third of all House members for the Articles of Impeachment to be sent to the Senate so the impeachment trial can start “forthwith.”

The Articles of Impeachment accused Duterte of alleged culpable violation of the 1987 Constitution, graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust, bribery and other high crimes, based on the following acts:

a) systematic misuse, misappropriation, and irregular liquidation of confidential funds amounting to P500 million released to the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and P112.5 million released to the Department of Education (DepEd) during her tenure as Education Secretary,

b) amassing unexplained wealth manifestly disproportionate to her lawful income and earnings during her incumbency as a public official,

c) failure to fully and truthfully disclose all her and her spouse’s assets, liabilities, and net worth in her Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALNs) for the years 2022, 2023, and 2024,

d) failure to divest, and instead, willfully continued, all her business interests during her tenure as Vice President for the years 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025,

e) giving monetary gifts or payments to DepEd officials to induce the violation and circumvention of procurement and other related laws,

f) contracting the assassination of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Marcos, and former Speaker and Leyte 1st District Rep. Martin Romualdez by allegedly making grave threats and by actively inciting sedition against the Republic.

Items a, e and f constitute Article 1, 3 and 4, while items b, c and d are all subsections of Article 2 of the Articles of Impeachment.

The House prosecution panel is busy preparing for the impeachment trial and is in the process of finalizing which Article of Impeachment is assigned to which prosecutor, as well as picking volunteer private lawyers.

“Siguro maghahati-hati kami. At, of course, we are also in the process of selecting lawyers who will help us. May mga volunteers actually, maraming volunteers. Pero siyempre kailangan medyo piliin pa po natin,” Chua said in an online interview.

(We will split the tasks. And of course, we are also in the process of selecting lawyers who will help us. We have volunteers, a lot. But of course, we have to choose.)

“Isa sa mga articles na iha-handle natin ay ‘yung confidential funds. Basically, parang tatlo ‘yung na-assign po sa akin. Kasama po tayo sa bribery at saka sa ill-gotten wealth,” he added.

(One of the articles that I will handle is on the confidential funds. Basically, three are assigned to me. That includes bribery and ill-gotten wealth.)

For his part, Diokno said his experience as a private prosecutor in the impeachment trial of former President Joseph Estrada will benefit the House panel.

He admitted that prosecution in an impeachment case is an “uphill battle.”

“Malaking hamon siyempre ‘yung paghahanda ng kasong kasinlaki nito. At for every article, there are many witnesses and exhibits and documents that have to be prepared. Kaya pinaghahandaan namin. Actually, may mga nag-uusap-usap na kami. Wala pa naman klarong mga assignment, as far as I’m concerned,” Diokno said.

(It’s a big challenge preparing for a case as big as this. And for every article, there are many witnesses and exhibits and documents that have be to be prepared. That’s why we are preparing for it. We’ve had talks but there are no clear assignments yet, as far as I’m concerned.)

Asked which article he would like to handle, he said: “Nandyan ‘yung issue ng unexplained wealth. Nandyan din ‘yung issue ng confidential funds. These are, ito ‘yung medyo complicated ang pagpepresenta ng ebidensya dahil maraming dokumento involved.”

(There’s the issue of unexplained wealth, there’s the issue of confidential funds. The presentation of evidence will be complicated since there are many documents involved.)

Meanwhile, De Lima said each impeachment prosecutor will handle more than one article of impeachment.

“We have organized ourselves already into teams. As you know, there are four articles. And for each article, may assigned na team (there is an assigned team). But you know, overlapping naman ‘yon (that’s overlapping). Some would be members of two or three teams, some would be members of only two teams. Overlapping because there are only 11 members of the prosecution team,” de Lima said in a phone interview.

On Monday, Cayetano and his allies voted to unseat Senator Vicente Sotto III as Senate President as the House voted on the Articles of Impeachment against Duterte.

Cayetano was subsequently installed as Senate President after a vote of 13-10.

The 13 votes for Cayetano included that of Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who showed up after a six-month absence amid an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for his alleged role in the war on illegal drugs when he was chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Cayetano – whose allies are against Duterte’s impeachment – denied that the Senate leadership change is related to the looming impeachment trial. — JMA, GMA News