Senator Pia Cayetano urges Senator Escudero to strictly enforce impeachment trial rules

Senator-judge Pia Cayetano appealed to Presiding Officer Francis "Chiz" Escudero to strictly enforce the rules during the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.

During the trial proceedings on Tuesday, she urged him to call out senator-judges whenever their questions are improper or raised at the wrong time.

Cayetano said she supported Escudero's earlier observation that a line of questioning had resembled the "final question of the entire impeachment proceedings" rather than an examination of a witness.

This was after Senator Risa Hontiveros asked private prosecutor Amando Virgil Ligutan what makes Duterte’s alleged threats against President Marcos an impeachable offense.

Cayetano stressed that the impeachment court should not shortcut the process and should instead focus on determining what evidence is admissible.

"If I may, Mr. President, admonish us. Call us out if our question is not proper [or asked at] at a proper time. We may all make mistakes, even I may make a mistake and I'm telling you, please call me out if I make a mistake and ask the kind of question that should not properly be asked by a judge at that particular time, because it is not right," she said.

"We must follow the rules and I know you're being courteous to all of us, but that was a closing statement," she added.

Cayetano and Escudero stated that Ligutan's answer is already like a premature closing argument.

"And I also ask the parties involved: you have an oath of lawyers, don't take advantage of the generosity of this impeachment court. I don't want to see this happen again," she added.