Prosecution opts not to present Zuleika Lopez, Belinda Bello in Sara Duterte impeachment trial

The House prosecution in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte will no longer present Office of the Vice President (OVP) chief of staff Zuleika Lopez and House of Representatives security official Captain Belinda Bello.

Private Prosecutor Lorna Kapunan announced this on Tuesday after NBI-Bangsamoro Regional Director Jeremy Lotoc testified before the impeachment court for two trial days.

Kapunan said the prosecution wanted to ask Lopez about the authenticity of the video of the virtual press conference but said the defense’s usage of the same footage constituted an admission of its authenticity.

The private prosecution lawyer also adverted to the pieces of documentary evidence from National Bureau of Investigation agents John Mark Calilung and Jeremy Lotoc and "the very clarificatory and probing questions of our senator-judges."

"It is the wisdom of the public prosecutors as expressed by this representation that we find it totally unnecessary, redundant, and a surplusage to still present Atty. Zuleika Lopez as well as Capt. Belinda Bello,” Kapunan told the impeachment court.

Kapunan made the manifestation after the cross-examination, re-direct, and re-cross questioning of Lotoc by the defense and prosecution panels.

Lopez was scheduled to take the witness stand on Tuesday, July 14, while Bello — executive director of the House Legislative Security Bureau — was supposed to testify on Wednesday, July 15.

An oral argument on the prosecution’s request to subpoena the tax-related documents on the sealed Bureau of Internal Revenue box was also slated for Wednesday, July 15.

According to Kapunan, the prosecution wanted to present Lopez as a witness to prove that she was personally present in the detention center when Duterte issued the alleged threats to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Lisa Araneta-Marcos, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez.

“I have said, on behalf of the public prosecutors, that we will no longer be presenting Atty. Zuleika Lopez and, in addition, because the testimony of Captain Belinda Bello is merely corroborative," Kapunan said.

"She would have been presented only to corroborate the fact that there was a transfer order made in the detention center and that transfer order had been the subject of the video or press conference of November 23, 2024,” she added.

“We are also no longer to call as a witness Captain Belinda Bello,” Kapunan said.

The defense, for its part, welcomed the development.

“It’s okay with us…We honestly did not expect it. But that was the prerogative of the prosecution, and we have no objection,” Atty. Michael Poa, one of Duterte’s lawyers, told reporters.

Lopez, Duterte's longtime aide, arrived at the Senate at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, ahead of the trial proceeding scheduled for 2 p.m.

She went straight to the Recto room, the holding area for the defense panel.

The hearing on Tuesday was spent on the continuation of the defense panel's cross-examination of Lotoc, the prosecution's re-direct questioning, and a re-cross. —LDF, GMA News