Sara Duterte impeachment trial: 'Admission against interest' clashes with 'no threat' defense

Vice President Sara Duterte’s statements that she ordered a kill job on President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., First Lady Liza Marcos and former Speaker and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, aside from wanting to cut the head of the Chief Executive, are all admissions against her interest, private prosecutor Benjamin Tolosa Jr. said on Day 5 of the impeachment trial. "What is consistent here is the fact that the Vice President never denied her statements in the November 2024 press conference and it was not denied in the answer and even after three days when she was asked about this, she had an opportunity to clarify her statement and there is no agreement to kill, sabihin niyang hindi biro biro lang ito, she did not take it back,” Tolosa Jr. said in a press conference. "She did not deny it, and she doubled down by trying to justify her statement, explaining or posing the question: Is revenge from the grave a criminal act? She never took it back that she already hired a hitman despite the repeated opportunities to do so. That kind of evidence is called admission against interest," Tolosa added. Jeremy Lotoc, NBI regional director for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) and former chief of the NBI Cybercrime Division, said the Vice President betrayed public trust when she threatened to have President Marcos Jr., First Lady, and former House Speaker Romualdez killed. "Freedom of speech protects lawful expression. It does not protect utterances that satisfy the elements of a criminal offense such as this," Lotoc said. "Should we allow that kind of argument to become the norm in society? What would prevent anyone else from doing the same? Imagine the chaos and anarchy," Lotoc added. Private prosecutor Lorna Kapunan also scored the defense for pounding on the criminal complaints against the Vice President over her 2024 statements pending before the Justice department, saying this is just meant to confuse everybody rather than defend the Vice President from impeachment allegations. "There is a deliberate attempt to misinform the viewing public. This is not a criminal case. We are talking about the fitness of a public official who makes statements like that, who has shown her emotional instability, who has shown how she can and is capable of carrying out her threats,” Kapunan said. Senator-judge Panfilo Lacson asked whether Lotoc had the impression that the supposed "Oplan Romanov" threat was directed at the Vice President. The NBI official said he believes it referred to an alleged assassination plot against President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. and the First Family—not Vice President Sara Duterte. Senator-judge Alan Peter Cayetano cautioned against concluding that Mayor Baste Duterte, who reportedly first mentioned Oplan Romanov publicly, had threatened the First Family. Senator-judge Robin Padilla asked about Lotoc’s professional background, credentials, and cases filed against him. The witness maintained that it is entirely normal for law enforcement officers to face cases due to the nature of their job. Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian asked Lotoc whether he believes the Vice President can carry out the alleged threat against the President and his family. The witness answered in the affirmative, saying it’s because she is the second-highest government official and the daughter of someone who faces charges of crimes against humanity for alleged extrajudicial killings. The impeachment court excused Lotoc past 7 p.m. The oral arguments on the House prosecution panel's request to subpoena the tax and bank records of Vice President Sara Duterte, her husband Manases Carpio, and businesses linked to them shall be held on Wednesday. Under the revised rules, the prosecution and defense would each have 15 minutes to present their arguments and 10 minutes for rebuttal. The Senator-Judges, meanwhile, were given 10 minutes each to explain whether the motion should be granted. Gatchalian joined Cayetano's motion to hold a caucus after the oral arguments on Wednesday. The defense team of Vice President Sara Duterte argued that her assertion that she had spoken with someone to kill the President was just a response to a question and not a threat. Mark Vinluan, one of Duterte’s lawyers, touted her 80% Bar exam score during her ongoing impeachment trial in the Senate. The defense criticized the typographical errors in the affidavit of investigation of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) into the second-highest official’s threats to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. anew, questioning whether it constituted violations of due process. Atty. Michael Poa, one of Duterte’s legal counsel, welcomed the prosecution’s decision not to present Office of the Vice President (OVP) chief of staff Zuleika Lopez, and Captain Belinda Bello as witnesses in Duterte’s impeachment trial. Poa said they were surprised by the move. —LDF, GMA News