The manner in which senator-judges are conducting themselves during Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial has become its own flashpoint, with Akbayan Party-list turning its attention on Saturday, July 25, to a social media post by Sen. Pia Cayetano.
At issue is a Facebook video the senator shared the previous day. The clip spotlighted a courtroom exchange between House prosecutor Rep. Chel Diokno and Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, Pia’s brother, during the proceedings against the vice president.
Akbayan took to X to argue that the footage had been manipulated. The party described it as a “spliced video” and said the senator had distorted what actually transpired between the prosecutor and her brother.
The group tied the alleged editing directly to what happened in the chamber, claiming Diokno had gotten the better of the sibling senator-judges. “Ang abogadong may argumentong pilipit, sa spliced video kumakapit. Dahil nasoplak ni Akbayan Rep. Chel Diokno ang magkapatid na senator-judge, pilit nilang binabaluktot ang kwento. Ang sad, noh? Move on na po. Better luck next time. ‘That’s just how it is,'” Akbayan said.
Beyond the question of whether the video was altered, the party raised a separate objection about what a sitting judge in an impeachment court should be posting at all. It framed Pia’s online activity as aligned with the vice president’s defense: “Pero ang mas nakakalungkot, ganito ang content ng isang senator-judge. Linyang-linya sa kampo ni Sara.”
Akbayan pressed the point with a pair of questions aimed at the propriety of a magistrate publicly needling one side of the case. “Saan ka nakakita ng judge na tino-troll online ang prosecution? Sino ngayon ang one-sided?” the party asked, challenging the notion that the prosecution had been the lopsided actor in the trial.
