Prosecutors drop plan to question VP aide in impeachment trial

House prosecutors on Tuesday dropped plans to question Vice President Sara Duterte’s chief aide and a House security official, saying the testimonies of their first two witnesses were enough to support the charge that the country’s second-highest official had threatened to kill President Marcos, the first lady and the former Speaker. One of the private lawyers helping the prosecution, Lorna Kapunan, told the Senate impeachment court that it was already “unnecessary” and “redundant” to present Zuleika Lopez, chief of staff of the Office of the Vice President (OVP), and Belinda Bello, the executive director of the House legislative security bureau. Kapunan said they initially planned to present Lopez, also a lawyer, as a witness to establish that she was “personally present” during the profanity-laced online press conference on Nov. 23, 2024, when Duterte made the alleged threats to the President, first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and former Speaker Martin Romualdez. Lopez would have also been asked to corroborate the Vice President’s statements during the livestreamed briefing, including her disclosure that she had talked to someone to have the Marcos couple and Romualdez killed should a supposed plot to kill her succeed. Bello, according to Kapunan, would have corroborated information about Lopez, who was then detained at the House after being cited for contempt by a committee investigating the alleged misuse of funds at the OVP and the Department of Education (DepEd). Duterte’s outburst stemmed from an order to transfer Lopez from the House detention facility to the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City. Kapunan said that video clippings of Duterte’s threats were already authenticated by their witnesses, noting that the defense panel admitted to their veracity by using the same material in the trial. “We know when to stop,” Kapunan told the senator-judges in manifestation she delivered on behalf of the prosecutors. The prosecution’s decision to forgo the presentation of Lopez and Bello came on the fifth day of Duterte’s impeachment trial on Tuesday. The trial first tackled Article IV charging the Vice President with culpable violation of the Constitution, high crimes, and betrayal of public trust. The article focuses on allegations of a supposed assassination plot and grave threats made against the President, his wife and Romualdez, his cousin. The trial opened last week with a plan to hear one witness a day. The court managed only one for the entirety of last week, as prosecutors and defense lawyers spent days sparring over the testimony of NBI special agent John Mark Calilung who authenticated videos of Duterte’s violent comments against Marcos. “We have reduced the trial dates by lessening our presentation on this article by two witnesses,” Kapunan said. The impeachment court has allotted a total of 92 trial days for the proceedings, including 11 days for the charge involving Duterte’s assassination threats against President Marcos (Article IV), 31 days for alleged misuse of secret funds (Article I), eight days for alleged bribery and procurement irregularities involving DepEd officials (Article III), and 12 days for the Vice President’s alleged unexplained wealth (Article II). Kapunan said there were no back-channel talks between prosecutors and defense lawyers over Lopez’s testimony, adding she was not afraid to handle the witness, whom she had been set to question on the stand. “I don’t back down at all,” she told reporters after Tuesday’s trial. “In fact, I kill mosquitoes with an atomic bomb.” But the lawyer clarified that while Lopez was spared from testifying on Duterte’s remarks, she could still be called upon by the prosecution as witness in relation to the other charges. “She is listed in some other article (of impeachment),” Kapunan said. Information Source: Inquirer NewsInfo