Duterte impeachment pretrial: Extra team tapped for document marking

MANILA, Philippines – The pretrial for the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte will reach a fourth day as documents related to the alleged misuse of confidential funds and the accumulation of unexplained wealth have yet to be marked.

To speed up the process, the marking of evidence on Wednesday will be divided into five teams, the defense said on Tuesday.

“The clerk of court has also announced… that even Article 2, because right now there is only one table marking Article II, there will be two tables for tomorrow, so that should help expedite the process,” Duterte defense team spokesperson Atty. Michael Poa said in Filipino.

Article continues after this advertisement

READ: Luistro, Poa admit: Pre-trial not yet near its ending

FEATURED STORIES

NEWSINFO

NEWSINFO

NEWSINFO

Earlier, three teams were assigned to Article I, or the alleged misuse of confidential funds, and one team was assigned to Article II, or the supposed unexplained wealth.

The defense and the House prosecution team have been marking documents for Articles I and II since Monday.

Previously, Clerk of Court and Senate Secretary Renato Bantug said that for Article I alone, there are 4,000 documents to be marked.

On Tuesday morning, the House’s lead prosecutor and Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro said they had requested the joint marking of common documents to expedite the process.

Article continues after this advertisement

The defense declined the request, saying that having their own evidence marked, despite being similar to the prosecution’s, would speed up the process during the impeachment trial itself.

READ: Defense refuses House prosecutors’ ‘common markings’ request in pretrial

Article continues after this advertisement

Duterte will also face two more articles during the trial scheduled to start on July 6.

The other articles are as follows:

Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.

Your subscription has been successful.

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