VP Duterte impeachment trial could take over 3 months, says lead prosecutor

House lead prosecutor Batangas 2nd district Rep. Gerville “Jinky Bitrics” Luistro says Vice President Sara Duterte Senate impeachment trial would likely take over three months to complete–longer than she previously anticipated. “Mukhang hindi kakayanin na hanggang September lang (Look like holding hearings up to September wont be enough),” Luistro said in a press conference Monday, June 22, or on the second day of pre-trial conference (PTC) between the prosecution and defense teams. “But nevertheless, the number of trial dates for the prosecution and the defense is subject to the discretion of the impeachment court,” Luistro said. “So it will be the impeachment court who will have the final say kung ilan ang trial dates na ipagkakaloob sa prosecution, in the same way kung ilan ang trial dates na ipagkakaloob sa depensa,” noted the lawyer-legislator. (So it will be the impeachment court who will have the final say on how many trial dates will be given to the prosecution, in the same way as how many trial dates will be given to the defense.) It was just before the first PTC on June 18 when Luistro said, “Mahaba pa itong trial na ito. Sa estimate ko nga, abutin ito hanggang end of September (This trial will still be long. In my estimate, it will reach until the end of September).” The actual trial against the twice-impeached Duterte will begin on July 6. Luistro is now saying that the high-stakes trial could reach up to November. The team of public and private prosecutors–now 22 and counting–aim to get a conviction on the Vice President on at least one of four articles of impeachment. These allegations are the alleged misuse of P612.5 million worth of confidential funds; untruthful declarations in the filing of her statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth; unexplained wealth; and death threats to President Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former House Speaker Leyte 1st district Rep. Martin Romualdez. 62 trial dates for prosecution, 30 for defense It was learned during Monday’s press conference that the prosecution panel has asked the Senate impeachment court to allocate 62 trial dates for the presentation of its evidence and witnesses. House legal spokesperson and private prosecutor lawyer Benjamin “Jay” Tolosa Jr. said the prosecution’s request was based on the number of witnesses and evidence identified in its pre-trial brief. “The prosecution asked for 62 trial dates and the defense asked for 30,” Tolosa disclosed. He clarified that the request does not necessarily mean the trial will last 62 days. He says the schedule could be shortened if the impeachment court allows more than one witness to be presented per trial day. Tolosa noted that the defense listed 97 witnesses in its pre-trial brief, including many witnesses also identified by the prosecution, despite asking for only 30 trial dates. The prosecution listed 57 witnesses. “So it’s a question of how come they listed 97 witnesses but they only asked for 30 trial dates,” he said. “Maybe it is an indication that there’s really no intention to produce all of those witnesses, but of course, we don’t want to pre-empt what actions they would want to do,” he said. According to Tolosa, there are 51 common witnesses between the two sides, composed of 16 named witnesses and 35 unnamed witnesses. He said some defense witnesses were identified only by office, such as representatives from the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Tolosa also said the defense adopted a substantial portion of the prosecution’s documentary evidence. “For the exhibits, we have 248 common exhibits, meaning 248 out of the 276 exhibits of the prosecution were basically copied also in their pre-trial brief or listed also as their evidence,” he said.