House prosecutors handling Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment told reporters this week that the document her legal team filed ahead of trial sidesteps the substance of the case, casting doubt on whether her camp intends to engage the allegations head-on.
Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, who speaks for the prosecution panel, said the defense’s pre-trial brief ran to dozens of pages without supplying direct responses to the accusations. “After reviewing the defense pre-trial brief, one cannot help but notice that it is long on pages but short on answers,” Adiong said. He argued that the measure of a defense is not its volume but whether it actually rebuts the charges, adding that the filing left him with more questions than it resolved.
Adiong also flagged what he described as an unusual feature of the defense’s witness roster. “What’s shocking is that many of the witnesses listed are also from the evidence long presented by the prosecution. This raises a legitimate question: What exactly is the defense’s independent factual narrative?” he said. According to Inquirer, Duterte’s brief names former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, ex-aide Ramil Madriaga, and more than 40 others as prospective witnesses — several of whom previously gave evidence to the House justice committee that the prosecution now plans to use against her.
The criticism surfaced as the Senate impeachment court convened its pre-trial conference on Thursday, June 18, at the chamber’s Recto Room in Pasay City. Lawyers for both sides appeared before Senate Secretary Renato Bantug Jr., who is serving as clerk of court. Michael Poa, counsel for the vice president, downplayed the day’s significance to reporters, describing it as routine procedure centered on stipulating facts and narrowing the issues. By order of the court, the conference was closed to the press and the public.
The pre-trial is meant to settle procedural ground before senator-judges begin hearing the case on July 6, covering matters such as the marking of evidence, the identification of witnesses, and the schedule for presenting arguments. The court has warned that a party failing to submit its brief on time or to appear without valid reason risks waiving its right to introduce particular evidence or witnesses.
Lead prosecutor Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro has said the panel’s brief lists more than 30 witnesses, a number expanded because anyone left off the document cannot later be called at trial. Among the evidence prosecutors are weighing is a claim by Madriaga, who stated in a supplemental affidavit that Duterte directed him in December 2022 to coordinate cash deliveries to allies — including drop-offs in San Pablo, Laguna, a Quezon City comedy bar, and the parking lot of the Office of the Ombudsman.
The vice president faces four consolidated charges spanning the alleged misuse of confidential funds at her office and the education department, accumulation of wealth out of step with her declared income, bribery of education officials, and threats against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his family. The House voted to impeach her a second time on May 11, with 257 members backing the articles, well past the one-third threshold the Constitution requires to send the case to the Senate.
