Sara Duterte camp rejects claim of 'mirroring' prosecution's witnesses

The defense team of Vice President Sara Duterte rejected Tuesday claims that it is supposedly copying the House prosecution panel’s witnesses list for the upcoming impeachment trial.

In an ambush interview at the Senate on the third day of the pre-trial conference, Atty. Michael Poa said that both the defense and prosecution teams submitted their pre-trial briefs to the Senate impeachment court almost at the same time on June 15.

“Sa tingin ko po, sa aming pananaw, hindi naman po tama ‘yung terminology na ‘mirroring’ or ‘adopting’ because as you know, you were here that day, halos sabay po kaming nag-submit ng pre-trial brief,” Poa told reporters.

(I think, from our part, the terminology ‘mirroring’ or ‘adopting’ is not right because as you know, you were here that day, we submitted the pre-trial brief almost at the same time as the prosecution team.)

“But again, it is a prerogative of either the defense or the prosecution to choose the witnesses and the pieces of documents that they will be presenting. So really, I don't see the issue in that,” he added.

Poa said that should the prosecution file a request, motion, or manifestation regarding the matter, the defense is “ready to respond accordingly.”

In the defense panel’s pre-trial brief, Duterte listed her accusers—former senator Antonio Trillanes IV and Ramil Madriaga—as witnesses for her upcoming impeachment trial.

The Vice President’s pre-trial brief stated that the purpose of fielding the witnesses, including Trillanes and Madriaga, is “to disprove the allegations in the Articles of Impeachment, establish that the allegations in the Articles of Impeachment are mere conclusions of law and fact” as well as to identify documents and prove other related matters.

Poa also said that the pre-trial conference is going "orderly" so far.

“We're very hopeful na matapos natin ‘to but again, ang dami ng dokumento which is normal for a case such as this. Ine-expect natin baka hindi tayo matapos ngayong araw. Baka umabot hanggang bukas or even Thursday, which is the original schedule naman po of the pre-trial conference,” he said.

(We're very hopeful that we will finish this but again, there are a lot of documents which is normal for a case such as this. We expect that we won’t be able to finish today. It may take until tomorrow or even Thursday, which is the original schedule of the pre-trial conference.)

The Articles of Impeachment approved by the House for Senate action accuse the Vice President of culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust, bribery and other high crimes. — RSJ, GMA News