VP Sara's remarks about harming Marcos an admission against interest --prosecution

The prosecution is asserting that Vice President Sara Duterte's statements, which suggested she ordered the killing of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Marcos, and former Speaker Martin Romualdez, constitute an "admission against interest." This stance was presented in response to the defense's arguments, which cited differing docket numbers in National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) reports. During the testimony of prosecution witness and former NBI Cybercrime Division lawyer Jeremy Lotoc on Monday, private prosecutor Benjamin Tolosa Jr. stated, "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, [and] she did not take it back." Tolosa added, "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." In the 2024 press conference, the Vice President's words were: "Don't worry about my security, because I have already spoken to someone. I told that person that if I am killed, kill BBM, Liza Araneta, and Martin Romualdez." She also said, "No joke, no joke. I already gave instructions that if I die, don't stop until you have killed them. And he said yes." Tolosa explained that an admission against interest is sufficient proof of an impeachable offense. While in criminal cases, it typically needs to be coupled with the corpus delicti (proof that the crime actually occurred), he noted that this is not a criminal case and therefore, the evidence is strong for an impeachment case. Prosecutor Terry Ridon of the Bicol Saro party-list agreed, stating that the defense's non-merit-based citations failed to deny the prosecution's allegations. "Even if they raise such things, it did not diminish the threat itself. This is the point here: the threat against the President and his family. Regardless of docket numbers, they do not change the fact that there was someone who made threats, that threats were made, and that there were threats and people were threatened," Ridon said, adding that "All that has been said so far supports the argument of the prosecution." House Deputy Speaker Jannette Garin of Iloilo concurred, stating, "The video is not AI, it was not manipulated; it was not altered. It was the Vice President who was speaking on the video. That's all there is to see."