VP Duterte's Impeachment Trial: Article IV on Grave Threats Concludes

The hearings on Article IV (grave threats) of the Articles of Impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte ended on Wednesday with the prosecution waiving a redirect examination of National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Melvin Matibag after the defense rested its cross. Presiding officer Senator-Judge Chiz Escudero told the court that the prosecution only used six of the 11 days allotted to it in the pre-trial order to present this article after withdrawing several witnesses. Of the nine trial days so far, three were spent for oral arguments on the subpoena, to interjections and debates with senators, and to opening statements. Before telling the impeachment court that the prosecution would no longer conduct a redirect, lead prosecutor Gerville Luistro once more sought to clarify for the record the nature of the affidavit attributed to self-confessed former hitman Arturo Lascañas. Luistro said the un-notarized affidavit was offered as part of Matibag’s testimony, and the presiding officer allowed it three times. The NBI official said Lascañas’ affidavit was being used as reference in their open source investigation. Escudero on Tuesday allowed Matibag to testify based on the document “but not as to the truth and veracity of its content.” Defense counsel Mark Vinluan manifested that the affidavit was not included in the impeachment complaint and that Duterte was never given the chance to answer it. He argued that being unsigned and un-notarized, it is just “a scrap of paper.” Alluding to Lascañas’ statements on extrajudicial killings, Senator-Judge Robin Padilla asked the prosecution whether it is right to call a person who keeps changing his story a liar. Luistro tried to qualify her answer but Padilla insisted on a yes or no answer. Escudero intervened and rephrased the question: Can it be said that a witness who changes his testimony across different dates cannot be relied on? Luistro agreed, but added that such a witness may be lying in one instance and telling the truth in the other, and there is no way to tell which. Padilla then asked the prosecution to stop presenting witnesses charged with perjury. Luistro said none of their witnesses have pending perjury cases. The senator-judge ended his questioning by telling the prosecution not to be one-sided. Senator-Judge Bong Go took the stand to explain the context behind the incident in 2011 where Duterte, then-mayor of Davao City, punched a sheriff who refused her request to delay the execution of a demolition order against 217 families. He said Duterte asked the sheriff to postpone the demolition as the families involved had just suffered from a flash flood that killed 31 individuals. In his testimony during the direct examination, Matibag presented the video where Duterte punched the sheriff to establish “a pattern of violence” in connection to the Vice President’s utterances that she has asked a person to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the First Lady, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez in case she got killed. Matibag also showed two separate videos where the Vice President and her brother, Davao City Mayor Baste Duterte, said they wanted the head of the President. Trial will resume on July 29, from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. (H. Marcos C. Mordeno / MindaNews)