Schooled? Luistro shot defense bid to discuss convict vote, says lawyer

MANILA, Philippines — A lawyer helping the prosecution panel has questioned reports of Vice President Sara Duterte’s lawyers schooling Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro, asking how that would happen when she tore down the defense’s request to discuss the threshold needed for conviction.

Jay Tolosa, the newest addition to the roster of private lawyers tapped by the House of Representatives’ prosecution team, explained that for someone to claim that Luistro was “eaten alive,” the opposing side should have secured a win, or a ruling favorable to them.

However, Tolosa explained that this cannot be the case because the clerk of court — Senate Secretary Renato Bantug Jr. — cannot make rulings on behalf of the Senate Impeachment Court.

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Tolosa also said that Luistro, the lead public prosecutor for Duterte’s impeachment trial, ably opposed the defense’s proposal to discuss the issue on the number of votes needed to convict Duterte.

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READ: New addition to impeachment prosecution team will also be spokesperson

“What I can say also factually is that we were able to secure or successfully achieve our goal.  What is that?  To ensure that the pre-trial would proceed in an expeditious manner. Right at the start of the pre-trial conference, there was an attempt on the defense to raise an issue regarding the two-thirds threshold, to post this as something that must be resolved before pre-trial could commence,” he said.

“And that is something that was quickly shot down by Congressman Luistro, and in fact, as you know, we were able to complete already the markings of evidence for two articles of impeachment,” he added.

Tolosa said it’s normal for parties to claim that tides are turning in their favor, but such assertions should be backed by facts.

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“It’s normal of course for parties to claim that they got the upper hand in any particular hearing […] Anything that I will say about it in terms of who really got the upper hand, of course, that will be viewed as bias.  So to properly address that, let’s stick to the facts,” he said.

“When you say, kinain, nagkalamunan (eaten alive), what does that mean?  It means someone got the upper hand compared to the other.  So what happened? It’s a pre-trial conference, so in that context, to say that you got the upper hand, it should mean that you were able to get favorable rulings on your part.  But that’s impossible,” he added.

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Under Article XI, Section 3(6) of the 1987 Constitution, a person being tried by the impeachment court cannot be convicted “without the concurrence of two-thirds of all the Members of the Senate.”

But with two senators outside of the chamber’s reach — with Sen. Jinggoy Estrada detained on plunder raps while Sen. Ronald dela Rosa has evaded public eye amid an arrest order from the International Criminal Court — there are proposals to lower the minimum number of votes needed to convict Duterte.

Last June 15, Luistro herself said that the vote threshold for convicting Duterte in her impeachment trial should be reduced from 16 to 14 if more senators eventually become unable to participate in the proceedings — as there are possible complaints against several members of the Senate.

READ: Luistro sees lower conviction vote if Senate numbers fall

Then on Friday, Luistro said the prosecution team will discuss issues involving the conviction threshold once the pre-trial conference is over.

Unprepared prosecutors?

Aside from claims that the prosecution was “eaten alive,” there were also accusations that the panel was unprepared when they participated in the pre-trial conference.

Luistro disputed this, saying that their decision to push for an expedited pre-trial conference should not be mistaken as unpreparedness.

“We are not struggling, we are very much prepared. But as I have said, it has been our position to have this pre-trial conference in an expeditious manner. So regardless of the manifestations that were raised by the defense — including counter stipulations — we maintained our position that that cannot be resolved by the clerk of court,” Luistro said, referring to the threshold issue.

“Therefore we should proceed immediately to the agenda of the pre-trial conference. Our refusal to comment to the manifestations of the defense doesn’t mean that we are not prepared. We simply maintained our position that those issues are not proper for PTC and therefore we must confine to the agenda of the pretrial conference,” she added.

READ: Schooled by defense panel? Luistro says it’s fake, won’t allow it

Earlier, Luistro disputed claims that she was “eaten alive” by the defense panel during the pre-trial conference, saying that she would not allow such a thing to happen.

The Batangas solon urged the public to be more careful in absorbing information from social media, noting that as a representative of the people, she will not allow the fight for accountability to be merely overwhelmed. /das

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