Duterte impeachment: Pretrial Day 3 to mark evidence on funds, wealth

MANILA, Philippines – The unexpected third day of the pretrial conference for Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment case commenced on Tuesday morning.

Although Duterte’s defense team and the House of Representatives’ prosecution panel had previously expected the pretrial to conclude on Monday, the volume of documents from both sides prompted an additional day for the marking of evidence.

The two camps will continue marking evidence for Articles I and II of the impeachment, referring to the alleged misuse of confidential funds and the alleged accumulation of unexplained wealth, respectively.

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These are the same articles tackled on Monday, but according to the impeachment clerk of court and Senate Secretary Renato Bantug, the defense and prosecution together submitted around 4,000 documents for the first article alone.

READ: Pre-trial to extend to Day 3 due to volume of documents — Bantug

Defense lawyer and spokesperson Michael Poa also said several documents are being reviewed for the second article, but he did not divulge a specific figure.

Poa further surmised that the pre-trial might continue until Thursday, but Bantug hopes the conference will finally close on Tuesday.

Bantug also assured the public that the impeachment schedule is still “on track,” with the trial scheduled for July 6.

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To expedite the process, each of the two remaining articles is being covered in four simultaneous discussions.

On the first day of pretrial last Thursday, the defense and prosecution tackled the following two impeachment articles Duterte is facing:

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Article III: Alleged bribery and corruption through monetary gifts and secret payments to DepEd officials during her tenure as education secretary.

Article IV: Public disclosure of allegedly contracting a hitman to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez. /mcm

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