House Majority Leader Sandro Marcos has thrown his weight behind a push to have Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial rendered in real time into several Philippine languages, framing the move as a matter of public access to a proceeding that will shape national politics.
Speaking on Wednesday, June 17, the Ilocos Norte representative said making the trial intelligible to Filipinos outside the legal profession was reason enough to endorse the idea. “For the sake of informing the Filipino people as to what are the goings-on in the trial… I’m happy to support that,” he said.
The proposal originated with the House prosecution panel, whose members have argued that the courtroom’s reliance on technical legal vocabulary risks shutting ordinary citizens out of one of the country’s most closely watched political events. Lead prosecutor and Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro told reporters the team wants prosecutors and the defense alike to lean on Filipino where the subject matter allows it, while conceding that some terms resist easy translation. “We understand there are legal terminologies which are really hard to translate,” she said, according to the Inquirer and DZRH.
Luistro has also called on lawmakers from the Visayas and Mindanao to look into whether simultaneous interpretation into regional languages can be arranged, with the stated aim of reaching as many language communities as the panel can manage. Prosecution spokesman and Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong said the panel was still working through the logistics with its communications team, describing the effort as a way to give the public the broadest possible understanding of what unfolds in the chamber.
The prosecution intends to raise the language question formally at the pre-trial conference scheduled for June 18, the session where both sides will mark evidence, identify witnesses, and narrow the points in dispute before arguments begin. Luistro’s team has indicated it will present more than 30 witnesses, and under the trial rules, anyone or anything left off the pre-trial brief cannot be introduced once proceedings are underway.
The Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, is set to open the trial proper on July 6. Duterte, who was impeached by the House in February 2025 and again in May 2026, has rejected the allegations against her, which span the alleged misuse of confidential funds, accumulation of unexplained wealth, and a purported threat against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the First Lady, and the House Speaker. A conviction by at least two-thirds of the 24-member Senate would remove her from office and bar her from holding public position again.
