Prosecution won't oppose court order on VP Sara impeach trial dates, evidence list

The House prosecution team won’t comment on the pre-trial order issued by the Senate court for the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte because there are no contentious issues, among others, private prosecutor and panel spokeperson Benjamin Tolosa, Jr. said.

The pre-trial order refers to the trial days schedule, as well as the evidence list of both the prosecution and the defense.

“We will not be filing a comment on the pre-trial order to avoid any possibility that it could be used to delay the hearing on July 6,” Tolosa said in a statement.

“In any event, there are no significant issues in the pre-trial order that require correction,” he added.

The impeachment trial of the Vice President is expected to begin on July 6.

Ahead of the issuance of the pre-trial order, the prosecution asked for 62 trial days while the defense asked for 30 trial days.

Another private prosecutor, Lorna Kapunan, also said on Thursday that she cannot speak on the pre-trial order in detail at this point.

Kapunan, however, said that the prosecution has listed 57 witnesses while the defense will be fielding at least 20 witnesses.

The Articles of Impeachment approved by the House for Senate action accuses the Vice President of culpable violation of the 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 chief

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 statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN) including in her SALN 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 "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr., First Lady Liza Marcos, and then-Speaker Martin Romualdez, by 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 Vice President has maintained that the impeachment case against her should be dismissed for lack of evidence, and that her supposed threat to kill Marcos is just part of her right to freedom of expression. — BM, GMA News