Sara Duterte impeachment trial: Prosecution demands VP testify, defense cites constitutional rights

The 23rd day of Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial kicked off with private prosecutor Lorna Kapunan informing the impeachment court that they would not present additional witnesses for Article 2, which alleges the misuse of P612.5 million in confidential funds, unless the Vice President herself takes the witness stand. Kapunan cited that based on the testimony of the four witnesses presented by the prosecution on alleged confidential fund misuse, it is only the Vice President who has the proper knowledge to explain the disbursement of the said funds that were allocated to the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education, when it was under Duterte's helm. “All of these pawns and castles and horses and bishops point to only one person, and that accountable person is the Vice President. In lieu of presenting 15 other witnesses, we will be presenting the Vice President herself for Article 1 of the Articles of Impeachment,” Kapunan said. “In this game of chess, there are pawns, bishops, castles, and horses. And the most important, more important than the king, and I speak this not because of my gender, but the queen is more important than the king because the queen can move in many directions. And we have seen that. We have seen that in the evidence presented,” she added. The prosecution was supposed to present at least three more witnesses on the alleged misuse of confidential funds, namely, Police Major Jovelyn Magay; Sunshine Fajarda, former Assistant Secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd) and incumbent Director VI of the OVP; and Commission on Audit- Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office Assistant Commissioner and Chief Executive Staff Bresilio Sabaldan. Kapunan, however, said that the prosecution’s case as far as the confidential fund misuse is concerned is already clear “based on 4,750 documents presented and identified by the 12 witnesses, 10 of whom were present in court and subjected themselves to long cross-examinations by the defense counsels, and as well to questions from the senator-judges.” In response to Kapunan’s take, defense lead counsel Sheila Sison said the Senate impeachment court compelling the Vice President to testify would violate the Constitution, which states that “No person shall be compelled to be a witness against himself." “This right is absolute, and this is not only a simple right or a statutory right. This is a fundamental right. This is a right emanating from the Constitution itself and one that emanates from the guarantees under Article 3 of our 1987 Constitution,” Sison said. “If respondent is not interested in this trial, she would not have even sent her lawyers to defend her in this case,” she said. Senate impeachment court presiding officer Francis Escudero said the prosecution should submit such a motion seeking a subpoena or court order for the Vice President to testify at her own trial first so the defense can comment and for the court to ultimately rule on it. After this issue was tabled, public prosecutor Chel Diokno of Akbayan party-list disclosed that the prosecution filed a request for admission which seeks the Vice President’s admission on the authenticity and ownership of bank accounts, the records of which will be presented by the prosecution as evidence. Diokno said such admission from the Vice President on ownership and authenticity of such bank accounts will greatly speed up the trial proceedings since she "necessarily possesses personal knowledge" of such accounts and "immediate means of verifying their accuracy and genuineness through her own records or directly with the banks that produced them." Defense team lawyer Michael Poa asked for 15 days to reply to such request for admission submitted by the prosecution, a motion which the court granted. With the prosecution deciding to rest its presentation of its witnesses on alleged misuse of confidential funds, senator-judge Erwin Tulfo took the time to call on the Senate impeachment court to decide if 16 should remain the voting threshold needed to secure a conviction of the Vice President. Tulfo posed the question since Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Rodante Marcoleta are detained over separate plunder charges, while Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa is in hiding amid an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court. Senator Loren Legarda, meanwhile, has not been attending the trial for weeks now due to health concerns, specifically a lung problem that she is having treated overseas. Senate impeachment court presiding officer Escudero then ruled that the court will hear amici curiae (friends of the court) on September 16 to weigh in on the voting threshold. He also scheduled the oral arguments between the prosecution and the defense on the voting threshold and the senator-judges’ voting on the issue for September 23. —LDF, GMA News