The Senate impeachment court dealt a string of blows to Vice President Sara Duterte’s defense team on Tuesday, throwing out multiple objections to clear the way for the House prosecution to introduce its initial witness and vital video evidence.
Tensions flared when defense attorney Carlo Narvasa sought to block Senior Agent John Mark Calilung of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) from testifying, arguing that Calilung’s name was omitted from the original impeachment articles.
House prosecutor Amando Virgil Ligutan countered the motion, explaining that the objection lacked merit because the initial complaint had progressed and the witness was formally included in the prosecution’s pretrial brief.
“The issue is settled. The issue is passé. No ground for objection,” Ligutan remarked.
Presiding officer Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero aligned with the prosecution, citing legal precedent that permits the presentation of evidence not explicitly detailed in the initial charging documents.
“The court, in general, will not shackle the prosecution by limiting it to the evidence mentioned in the information and/or the articles, especially if it’s been mentioned in the pre-trial brief, not only order, but brief, of the counsel for prosecutors,” Escudero stated.
The defense met another roadblock when it tried to halt the screening of a specific two-minute-and-18-second video clip that allegedly features the Vice President making grave threats.
Although Narvasa demanded that the complete recording be played, the impeachment court rejected the request and allowed the prosecution to show only the selected excerpt to the senator-judges.
Narvasa continuously challenged the prosecution’s line of questioning during Calilung’s testimony, characterizing the queries as either leading or ambiguous. A sharp exchange erupted when prosecutors asked the witness to identify the exact timestamp in the video where the Vice President allegedly spoke about contracting an assassin to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the First Lady, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez.
While Escudero shot down the defense’s objection to the question, Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano stepped in to advise Ligutan to reword his inquiry to avoid further issues regarding leading questions.