House prosecution drops redirect for Matibag in Duterte impeachment trial

The House prosecution panel will no longer conduct a redirect examination for National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Melvin Matibag, its witness in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, lead prosecutor Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro said Wednesday. “The prosecution finds it unncessary to conduct redirect,” Luistro said. Matibag is the last witness of the prosecution for the Article of Impeachment on the alleged grave threats made by the Vice President against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and others. He was cross-examined by defense counsel Mark Vinluan. Meanwhile, Luistro said that the prosecution presented the affidavit of alleged Davao Death Squad hitman Arturo Lascañas as part of Matibag’s testimony. “It was never claimed by the prosecution that this affidavit is notarized. Kailanman po ay hindi sinabi ng prosecution na notarized ang dokumentong ito. Ito ay prinesenta bilang bahagi lamang ng testimonya ng witness at bilang bahagi din ng investigation ng NBI,” she said. (It was never claimed by the prosecution that this affidavit is notarized. At no point did the prosecution said that this document is notarized. It was presented only as part of the witness’s testimony and as part of the NBI’s investigation.) On Tuesday, Senator Pia Cayetano questioned the prosecution’s presentation of the affidavit. She said that any law student knows that the affidavit is not acceptable, noting that it wasn’t notarized. Following this, Vinluan said that according to the rules, an affidavit must be testified to and identified by the person and authority of the affidavit. Vinluan called the affidavit a “mere scrap of paper.” Meanwhile, Impeachment Presiding Officer Francis “Chiz” Escudero stated that Lascañas’ affidavit was not offered as an authentic document, but it was part of the documents used by Matibag in his open-source investigation. Duterte is accused of betraying public trust by allegedly resorting to violence, threatening to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and amassing unexplained wealth. —AOL, GMA News