Persistent objection not part of Sara Duterte defense legal tactic — Poa

Lawyer Michael Poa, a legal counsel of Vice President Sara Duterte, denied Tuesday that the multiple objections of the defense team on the second day of her impeachment trial was a legal strategy, asserting that these are merely part of regular court proceedings.

"Hindi strategy 'yun. It's actually something that lawyers do everyday in court. Bakit? Kasi under the rules there are questions that are objectionable and questions that are allowed. Siyempre kapag objectionable, trabaho rin ng abogado—whether defense or prosecution—to object and the rule in terms of testimony being given by witness, they have to object as soon as the ground is apparent. Ibig sabihin kapag lumabas na... dapat mag-object ka na kaagad kasi kung hindi ka mag-object, that would be considered waived," Poa told reporters.

(That is not a strategy, but actually something that lawyers do everyday in court. Why? Because under the rules, there are questions that are objectionable and questions that are allowed. If the questions were objectionable, then it is our job to object and the rule in terms of testimony being given by witness is that we have to object as soon as the ground is apparent. This means we have to object each question as it arises, or else it would be considered waived.)

"On our part, ginagawa lang naman namin ang trabaho namin (On our part, we were just doing our job)," he added.

When the House prosecution team presented video evidence on the second day of the impeachment trial, defense lawyers expressed multiple objections to what it tagged as misleading, if not leading, questions.

READ: Who are Amando Virgil Ligutan, Carlo Joaquin Narvasa in Sara Duterte's impeachment trial?

Poa maintained it could not be considered as a legal tactic.

"As of strategy, hindi naman po gan'un kababaw ang strategy namin na object lang nang object," he said.

(As of strategy, no, it is not our strategy. It would be shallow to just object and object.)

'Good-cross'

The impeachment trial entered its third day with defense lawyer Carlo Joaquin Narvasa tasked to cross-examine National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Senior Agent John Mark Calilung, who was presented by the House prosecution panel as its first witness.

Poa said the Duterte camp was expecting a "good-cross", adding that Narvasa is "very prepared" for the cross-examination.

"We're expecting good cross today. Attorney Narvasa is very prepared and pagdating naman sa two-hour video, tingnan muna natin kung we will be needing that or kung if we don't have to play the entire thing. Right now, titingnan muna natin ang takbo ng cross-examination," Poa added.

(We're expecting good cross today. Attorney Narvasa is very prepared and with regard to the two-hour video, let's see if we will be needing that or if we don't have to play the entire thing. Right now, we will see how the cross-examination goes.)

VP as 'hostile' witness?

Meanwhile, Poa said the defense team has yet to consider listing Duterte as a "hostile" witness for the impeachment proceedings after the House prosecutors earlier sought to call the Vice President as a witness on the second day of her impeachment trial.

A witness may be considered as unwilling or hostile only if so declared by the court upon adequate showing of his adverse interest, unjustified reluctance to testify, or his having misled the party into calling him to the witness stand.

"Right now, wala kaming nalagay na ganiyan sa aming pre-trial brief... Sa amin, wala sa listahan namin but ang parati naming sinasabi is kung darating ang oras na sa pananaw namin ay kinakailangan, siyempre we will consult our client regarding the matter," said Poa.

(Right now, we have yet to include her in the pre-trial brief. She is not in our list, but like what I said, if we find that it is time to call our client to appear before the court, then we will consult her regarding the matter.)

The 1987 Constitution prohibits respondents to be compelled to testify against themselves, Poa added. — VDV, GMA News