Senators are moving to compress the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte to keep the chamber’s legislative calendar intact, with the 2027 national budget among the measures competing for floor time.
Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian said the chamber wants to avoid letting the proceedings consume the seven to eight months originally projected, a span that would push a verdict to February. Deliberations on the 2027 budget could begin as early as August, he noted, alongside proposed changes to the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act.
“That’s why we’re studying how to hasten the impeachment trial. We will consult the prosecution and the defense on how we can shorten the process,” Gatchalian said in a dzBB interview on Sunday, June 28.
One option under review is trimming the volume of witnesses and exhibits. Gatchalian pointed to the 10,000 pieces of evidence marked during the pre-trial conference as an indication of how unwieldy the proceedings could become. The pre-trial order is expected to be released today, June 29, with both sides allotted three days to submit comments on it.
The schedule itself remains fixed: the trial opens July 6. Security around the Senate will be tightened, though Senate Secretary Renato Bantug Jr. said portions of the gallery will stay open to spectators. “It’s in the rules that it (trial) must be open to the public at all times. We will reserve seats for the public,” he told dzMM.
On the prosecution side, House of Representatives lawyers are preparing to lean on the Senate’s subpoena authority for witnesses unlikely to cooperate. Manila Rep. Joel Chua said the panel’s roster of 57 names includes people expected to resist testifying, among them figures tied to Duterte’s defense.
“That’s why we have what we call ‘unwilling’ or ‘hostile’ witness. Not all who will be presented there are willing (to testify),” Chua said.
He clarified that landing on the list does not mean an automatic summons. “Everyone we listed will not necessarily be summoned immediately,” he said. “They are there in the event that we may need their testimony. If it comes to a point where we think a particular testimony is strong and they are no longer needed, then most likely they will not be called.” A subpoena request would follow only if a critical witness aligned with the Vice President refused to appear voluntarily.
The remark came after former court sheriff Abe Andres — captured on television being struck by then mayor Duterte during a 2011 demolition — asked to be kept out of what he described as “partisan political matters.” Among those already named is former Department of Education spokesman Michael Poa, now the spokesman for Duterte’s defense team.
Chua also sought to tamp down expectations that the case would stretch on for years because of the roughly 4,000 alleged recipients of Duterte’s confidential funds. Rather than calling every signatory, prosecutors intend to build their case around a single name: “Mary Grace Piattos,” a suspected fictitious recipient. House investigators have alleged that thousands of acknowledgment receipts justifying the Office of the Vice President’s confidential spending carried invented names, and the Philippine Statistics Authority has confirmed it holds no birth or marriage record for that individual.
