House prosecutors thank Senate after VP Duterte pretrial completion

MANILA, Philippines —The House prosecution panel thanked the Senate impeachment court on Thursday night for helping complete the pretrial proceedings in the case against Vice President Sara Duterte despite the thousands of documentary exhibits involved.

The five-day pretrial conference, held on June 18 and June 22 to 25, closed with the marking of documentary evidence and the submission of the parties’ stipulations and manifestations ahead of the trial proper, which starts on July 6.

“The marking of exhibits has been completed, and the pretrial conference has been terminated,” the lead prosecutor, Batangas Rep. Gerville “Jinky Bitrics” Luistro, said in Filipino during a press conference after the proceedings.

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READ: Presentation of evidence may take 92 trial days, impeachment court told

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Voluminous documents

With Luistro at the press conference were fellow public prosecutors Leila de Lima, Jose Manuel “Chel” Diokno, Joel Chua, and Terry Ridon, along with private prosecutor and legal spokesperson Benjamin “Jay” Tolosa Jr.

Luistro credited the Senate impeachment court for helping ensure that the proceedings moved forward despite the volume of evidence.

“We expressed our thanks and gratitude to the impeachment court, because through the intervention of the impeachment court, we completed the marking, especially of voluminous documents pertaining to the article on unexplained wealth and the article on confidential funds,” Luistro said.

According to her, the prosecution considers the pretrial a success because it remained focused on completing the proceedings quickly despite procedural issues raised by the defense.

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“It was a clear position not to engage with those issues because our objective ever since was to finish this pre-trial conference expeditiously,” she said.

Prolonged marking

The prosecution placed on record, however, its observation that the defense prolonged the marking of documentary evidence by refusing to use common markings for identical exhibits intended for presentation by both parties.

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According to Luistro, prosecutors marked more than 4,000 documentary exhibits related to confidential fund disbursements — over 2,000 from the Office of the Vice President and more than 1,900 from the Department of Education.

Because the defense insisted on separately marking the same documents, the total number of markings doubled.

“So the prosecution did the marking individually. And then, because they refuse to agree that we mark in the same document, they have to mark as well those 4,000 exhibits, which likewise form part of their documents. Eight thousand in total,” Luistro said.

Chua noted that the process took even more time because every marked document also had to be signed by everyone — the prosecution, the defense, and impeachment court personnel.

Responding to the claim of the defense that one prosecution document lacked a page during the marking process, Chua said: “That was isolated — it was not the case in everything that was marked. That happens,” the Manila lawmaker said.

READ: Palace: Impeachment trial won’t cause division, affect gov’t work

Repeated request to open BIR box

The prosecution also repeated its request for the Senate impeachment court to allow the opening of the sealed Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) box containing records relevant to the impeachment article on alleged unexplained wealth.

Luistro said the House deliberately refrained from opening the box after receiving it from the BIR, believing that the matter should be left to the impeachment court.

She noted, however, that the defense opposed not only the opening of the box but even its marking as an exhibit.

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The prosecution is now awaiting the Senate impeachment court’s pretrial order and the formal start of the impeachment trial. /atm