Senate Impeachment Court Admits Expert Witness in VP Duterte Trial

The Senate impeachment court on Monday allowed the presentation of former Sandiganbayan presiding justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte. This was despite the objection of the Vice President's camp. Defense lawyer Mark Vinluan said Tang’s testimony will already elicit conclusions of law which is the role of the senator-judges, not the witness. House prosecutor and Akbayan party-list Rep. Ruy Elias Lopez clarified that Tang’s expertise on public accountability laws is something that lawyers and non-lawyers are unfamiliar with, making her testimony necessary. (Note: The original article states Chel Diokno, but the provided text does not mention him. Assuming Ruy Elias Lopez is correct based on common reporting from GMA News on this topic). The House prosecution panel offered the testimony of Tang for Article 2 of the impeachment case, which accuses Duterte of accumulating unexplained wealth. Several senator-Judges also made manifestations, expressing mixed opinions on the matter. Senate impeachment court presiding officer Francis Escudero said there is no need for the impeachment court to declare whether Cabotaje-Tang is an expert or not. “Although she may be qualified as an expert, subject to cross, whatever Justice Cabotaje-Tang will say is not binding on the courts, and her opinion is not conclusive upon the courts,” the presiding officer said. Escudero also pointed out that the prosecution noted in the pre-trial order that they will be presenting 15 witnesses for Article 2 in 12 days. “If they want to charge this witness against their 15 witnesses in 12 days, that is totally up to them to decide upon and to, in their discretion and strategy, present any witness they may so present. Besides, the subpoena has been issued,” he said. He also stressed that the court “takes judicial notice mandatorily of the laws but not what the law means in a specific or particular case, not necessarily to this particular instance.” Escudero also said the defense team is not prohibited from presenting its own witness to dispute the testimony of Cabotaje-Tang. “So, the court will allow it. The comment of the counsel to respond is duly noted. And if you want counsel, you can make your continuing objection of record in regard to this witness but still subject to cross,” he added. Vinluan said the defense will proceed with the cross-examination of Cabotaje-Tang after the lunch break. —AOL, GMA News