Senator Escudero urges Duterte impeachment lawyers to tone down rhetoric

Senator Francis Escudero, presiding officer of the Senate impeachment court, urged opposing counsels on Wednesday to temper their rhetoric following a heated exchange between prosecution counsel Lorna Kapunan and defense counsel Kristine Ferrer during Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial.

The tension flared as defense counsel Kristine Ferrer cross-examined Commission on Audit (COA) witness Xylene del Campo regarding findings by the Intelligence and Confidential Fund Auditing Office (ICFAO). Those findings formed the basis of a notice of disallowance against the Office of the Vice President (OVP).

Ferrer pressed Del Campo on whether an apprehension was legally required before information supplied by an informant could qualify for a monetary reward.

Del Campo explained that rules governing informant rewards differ from those covering information purchases, citing 4.8.5 of Commission on Audit (COA) Joint Circular No. 2015-01. The provision requires reward payments to be supported by documentation demonstrating successful information gathering or surveillance directly tied to authorized agency activities.

When Ferrer pressed for a direct response, the exchange escalated:

Ferrer: “Your Honor, please, can the witness be directed to answer this with yes or no? The counsel [for the prosecution] has her time to ask clarificatory questions later.”

Kapunan : “Not all questions can be answered by yes or no.”

Ferrer: “I’m on cross, Your Honor, please.”

Kapunan: “Never mind if you're on cross. There are limits to cross-examination. Misleading questions are not allowed.”

Ferrer: “They are allowed!”

Intervening to cool the room, Escudero appealed to both lawyers while making light of their age difference.

“Counsels, please, let's not allow the generational or seeming generational divide to increase the tension in the courtroom. Let's keep it a notch lower,” Escudero requested.

Kapunan, a veteran trial attorney, responded in jest: “Your Honor, please, I am preventing myself from giving her a spanking. That is what I want to do in the generational divide.”

Escudero reminded both sides that courtroom decorum applies equally to all advocates regardless of tenure. “You are all members of the bar and you are all counsels for the parties. And we will be treating and looking at each one equally,” he noted.

Kapunan agreed to tone down her remarks and promised to behave moving forward. When Ferrer attempted to offer a compliment—calling Kapunan an idol—the veteran prosecutor quickly cut in.

“Let's end here. It might sound like a eulogy, Your Honor. I'm still very much alive,” Kapunan joked, drawing laughter from the gallery before cross-examination resumed.