Harry Roque has offered himself as a potential witness on the authenticity of the video at the center of Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial, saying he is among the people qualified to vouch for the recording because it went out on his own Facebook page.
The former presidential spokesperson also questioned the credentials of the man the prosecution used to introduce that evidence. In a statement, Roque said cross-examination exposed that National Bureau of Investigation Senior Agent John Mark Calilung had not been “presented or qualified as a digital forensics expert” and was therefore not competent to authenticate the material.
Calilung was the first witness called by House prosecutors when the trial resumed on July 7, 2026. He described himself to the impeachment court as the agent on case in the NBI’s inquiry into Duterte’s alleged threats against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and then-Speaker Martin Romualdez.
The recording in question captured a roughly two-hour Zoom briefing Duterte held for reporters and supporters late on November 23, 2024, while she was outside the House detention facility where her chief of staff, lawyer Zuleika Lopez, was being held. The livestream ran on Roque’s Facebook page.
Prosecutors played a short excerpt in the chamber. In it, Duterte says: “Huwag kang mag-alala, ma’am, sa security ko, kasi may kinausap na ako na tao. Sinabi ko sa kanya, kapag pinatay ako, patayin mo si BBM, si Liza Araneta, at si Martin Romualdez. No joke. No joke.”
Calilung told senator-judges he screen-recorded the livestream, checked it against what appeared on Roque’s page, generated a hash value to lock in the file’s integrity, and asked Meta to preserve the original. He said he later executed an Affidavit of Authentication of Digital Evidence covering the forensic steps taken.
Defense counsel Carlo Narvasa fought the presentation at nearly every turn, moving early to disqualify Calilung on the ground that the agent was not named in the underlying complaint. Presiding officer Senator Francis Escudero denied the motion. Narvasa also demanded the full two-hour recording be played for context; Escudero ruled each side may choose how to present its own evidence.
The question of provenance resurfaced on July 8, when Senator-judge Robin Padilla pressed Calilung on who actually recorded the briefing and whether investigators had spoken to that person — an exchange that put Roque’s name back before the court, as reported by Interaksyon.
Article IV of the impeachment complaint covers the alleged grave threats. Conviction on any article requires 16 votes from the 24-member court and would remove Duterte from office, with a possible permanent disqualification from public service.
Roque himself is a fugitive. Angeles City Regional Trial Court Branch 118 ordered his arrest in May 2025 over qualified human trafficking charges tied to the Lucky South 99 offshore gaming hub raided in Porac, Pampanga. He has denied the accusations, calling them political persecution, and flew to the Netherlands in March 2025 to seek asylum. The offenses carry no bail.
