Additional teams, extended hours granted for VP Duterte impeachment evidence work

The House prosecution panel said preparations for the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte remain on schedule after the Senate impeachment court secretariat approved additional resources for the processing of documentary evidence.

Speaking on Wednesday, House Prosecution Panel Legal Spokesperson Atty. Benjamin Tolosa Jr. said prosecutors were given extra teams to accelerate the marking of evidence tied to several impeachment articles.

"That was granted with respect to additional marking teams. So today, and we thank the Senate Secretariat for this, binigyan tayo ng four marking teams para ho doon sa marking of the documentary evidence with respect to the Articles of Impeachment for confidential funds and two marking teams for the Articles of Impeachment pertaining to unexplained wealth," Tolosa said.

Apart from the additional personnel, the prosecution was also allowed to extend its work hours for evidence marking.

"For the past days, the proceedings were suspended at 5pm but starting today, we will be allowed to continue until 7pm," he said.

Tolosa said the accommodations provided by the secretariat should help ensure that the prosecution completes its preparations in time for the proceedings, dismissing concerns that the presentation of witnesses on July 6 could be pushed back.

"Kung nagkakaroon ng worries about the possibility of the July 6 first day presentation of witness will be delayed, sinisigurado namin na, again, as I've emphasized a while ago, hindi ho yan mangyayari dahil lalo kami sa prosecution, pinipilit ho talaga namin na matapos lang ho itong marking of evidence. And again, accommodations are being extended to us by the Secretariat to help us achieve that goal," he explained.

The impeachment complaint against Duterte, transmitted by the House of Representatives in May, accuses the vice president of culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, bribery, betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes.

Duterte's camp, meanwhile, submitted its formal answer to the Articles of Impeachment on June 1 and asked the impeachment court to throw out the case.

-Paraluman News