For violation, Sara Duterte's lead counsel called out twice

MANILA, Philippines — On Monday, the first day of Duterte’s impeachment trial, Sheila Sison, the lead counsel for Vice President Sara Duterte, was called out twice for a rule violation.

First, she was called out by the trial presiding officer, Sen. Francis Escudero, as she and Rep. Gerville Luistro started debating the prosecution’s motion for the four articles of impeachment to be read and for the vice president to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty.

Sison asked if Luistro was proposing that Duterte be arraigned. They tried to air their arguments at the same time, prompting Escudero to stop the debate.

READ: LIVE: VP Sara Duterte impeachment Day 2

After banging his gavel repeatedly, Escudero said, “Let this not be a debate between the counsels.”

Then, addressing Sison, he said, “Counsel for respondent, kindly make your comments and avoid asking questions from the counsel of the prosecution.”

Escudero directed the two sides to “address the chair with respect to anything and everything they want or wish to say and not to address each other.”

Diokno’s turn

Later, it was the turn of Rep. Chel Diokno, a member of the House prosecution panel, to call Sison out.

Addressing himself to the presiding officer, Diokno said, “I noticed that your honor has already directed the counsel for the defense not to propound questions to the prosecution.”

“This is already the second time she has done that. She appears to be assuming or arrogating the powers of the court, because I understand that under the rules, it is only the court that can propound questions to the counsels,” Diokno said.

READ: Prosecution: Sara Duterte’s hitman claim shows aim to kill president

In response, Sison said she was addressing her query to the presiding officer.

Escudero noted the remarks of both counsels and told Sison that the impeachment court “will get to that [the presentation of witnesses] later.”

READ: Impeachment court returns Duterte’s alleged tax records to BIR

Luistro justified her proposal for each of the four articles of impeachment and for the vice president to enter a plea, saying it was “very much consistent with the Senate rules on impeachment.”

“With a reading of the articles of impeachment, she [Duterte] will be informed of the accusations against her before she answers whether she’s guilty or not guilty,” she said in a mix of English and Filipino.

“There is a possibility that the plea of the respondent to each and every article of impeachment will be different from one another,” she added.

Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.

Your subscription has been successful.

Read Next

Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.