House prosecution weighs reducing number of witnesses

The House prosecution team is considering reducing the number of witnesses it will present in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, prosecutor Joel Chua said Sunday.

"We will assess whether our case is strong enough to reduce the number of witnesses, particularly those we believe would only prolong the proceedings,” Chua told Super Radyo dzBB on Sunday.

"We don’t want to drag this out. We want to expedite the proceedings without sacrificing the substance of what we want to present,” he added.

The Senate impeachment court has allotted 31 days for the presentation of evidence on the alleged misuse of confidential funds by the Vice President.

The Senate impeachment court is currently tackling Article I of the impeachment complaint, which accuses Duterte of impeachable offenses arising from the alleged systematic misappropriation and irregular liquidation of confidential funds.

These include P500 million released to the Office of the Vice President and P112.5 million released to the Department of Education during her tenure as secretary.

After Article I, the House prosecution team aims to tackle Article II, which alleges Duterte's unexplained wealth, failure to truthfully disclose her assets in her Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth from 2022 to 2024, and failure to divest from and willful continuation of business interests.

However, Chua said all options on how to proceed with the trial remain under consideration.

Combat fake news

Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, spokesperson for the House prosecution panel, earlier said the prosecutors would comply with any directives the Senate impeachment court may issue regarding public engagements.

Chua, meanwhile, appealed to the Senate impeachment court for some flexibility, saying their “opponent” is fake news.

“We are asking for a little flexibility because our opponent here is fake news,” Chua said in the Sunday interview.

Presiding officer Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero earlier said he was “drafting a ruling, warning, and order” regarding a pattern observed by the clerk of court in which social media posts by lawyers representing “one side have crossed the line many, many times.”

This came after Duterte’s defense team criticized a social media post by private prosecutor Amando Virgil Ligutan, who commented on the use of misleading questions during the impeachment trial.

Ligutan’s Facebook post read: “A principle all lawyers and law students know by heart: Misleading questions are not allowed even on cross-examination.”

The post followed a courtroom exchange between private prosecutor Lorna Kapunan and defense attorney Kristine Ferrer, during which Ferrer appeared to claim that misleading questions were permissible during cross-examination.

The prosecution argued that even before the defense complaint, the integrity of the court had already been called into question by earlier incidents, specifically a statement made by Duterte and a spliced video uploaded online.— MCG, GMA News