Impeachment Court Prepares Key Ruling on Subpoena for VP's Records

MANILA, Philippines — The major points of the Senate impeachment court’s decision allowing the issuance of a subpoena for Vice President Sara Duterte’s tax and bank records had already been prepared before the trial proper started on July 6. This was according to the court’s spokesperson, Regie Tongol, as he disclosed what went behind Monday’s ruling delivered in open court by the presiding officer, Sen. Francis Escudero, which granted the House prosecutors’ request to subpoena confidential documents that they said would support the charge that Duterte amassed ill-gotten wealth while in office. “So basically the main chunk of the decision of the presiding officer has already been prepared even before July 6th,” Tongol said in a media briefing ahead of the resumption of the trial on Tuesday. “So I think the presiding officer also, during the caucus, consulted his fellow senator-judges about it and asked about their views regarding the matter and that is the request of the other senator-judges to study it until the weekend and until today. So, handa na naman siya (it has been prepared) ever since,” he added. Tongol noted that the request for the subpoenas was already stated in the pretrial briefs presented by the prosecution panel and was just renewed during the trial. Prior to Escudero reading out the ruling, the senator-judges were expected to vote on the matter in open session, given the strong objections raised by the defense. The defense team’s spokesperson, Michael Poa, said he was surprised to learn that most parts of the ruling read by Escudero were already finished even before the trial began. But Poa said he and his felllow counsels would respect the ruling. “Actually, I was surprised too when I read it,” said Poa at a press conference. “But nonetheless, I don’t really want to read too much into it. I don’t want to cast aspersions on what happened yesterday,” he said. Poa said it was possible that the senator-judges had already come up with their respective positions but still allowed both sides to deliver oral arguments on Monday to see if they could still change the resolution. He said the defense team had yet to decide whether it would go to the Supreme Court to question the ruling. —WITH A REPORT FROM TINA G. SANTOS