Senate impeachment court OKs extended hours, more teams for marking of evidence in VP Sara trial

The Senate impeachment court secretariat has granted the House prosecution panel's request for additional teams for the marking of evidence in the trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.

"That was granted with respect to additional marking teams. So today, and we thank the Senate Secretariat for this, binigyan tayo ng four marking teams para ho doon sa marking of the documentary evidence with respect to the Articles of Impeachment for confidential funds and two marking teams for the Articles of Impeachment pertaining to unexplained wealth," said House Prosecution Panel Legal Spokesperson Atty. Benjamin Tolosa, Jr. on Wednesday.

Tolosa also said that marking of evidence will be allowed until 7pm today and tomorrow.

"For the past days, the proceedings were suspended at 5pm but starting today, we will be allowed to continue until 7pm," he said.

Tolosa also assured the public that the House Prosecution Panel will do everything to ensure that the Vice President Duterte's impeachment trial will not be delayed.

"Kung nagkakaroon ng worries about the possibility of the July 6 first day presentation of witness will be delayed, sinisigurado namin na, again, as I've emphasized a while ago, hindi ho yan mangyayari dahil lalo kami sa prosecution, pinipilit ho talaga namin na matapos lang ho itong marking of evidence. And again, accommodations are being extended to us by the Secretariat to help us achieve that goal," he explained.

The House of Representatives impeached Duterte in May over allegations of culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, bribery, betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes.

On June 1, Duterte’s camp filed its answer to the Articles of Impeachment and asked the impeachment court to dismiss the case. —VAL, GMA News