Vice President Sara Duterte’s chief defense attorney, Atty. Sheila Sison, opened the Senate impeachment trial on Monday by accusing House prosecutors of overstepping the original scope of their allegations.
Sison reminded the court of the House’s failed 2025 impeachment attempt, which the Supreme Court ultimately threw out as void from the beginning.
Sison contended that this was not the
“first time that members of the House of Representatives have attempted to remove the Vice President in a manner not compliant with Constitution.”
The defense panel maintained that the House Committee on Justice ran an unconstitutional “fishing expedition” to artificially expand the case against Duterte.
Sison emphasized that accountability is a two-way street under the law:
“Indeed, the people have the right to demand accountability from their leaders. What we have yet to hear from the prosecution is this: When the Constitution declared… that public office is a public trust… the Constitution doesn’t only speak to the Vice President. It also demands the same standards from the prosecutors,” Sison said.
“Being public officers themselves, the public prosecutors and the members of the House of Representatives are also held to the same Constitutional standards,” she said.
The defense raised several key arguments challenging the prosecution’s evidence:
- Suspicious Timing: Sison argued that state audit suspensions regarding the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) 2022 confidential funds were suspiciously timed to align with House hearings.
- Witness Contradictions: She pointed out that while the prosecution plans to use statistical data to claim certain recipients of the confidential funds do not exist, they simultaneously listed one of those controversial figures, “Mary Grace Piattos,” as a witness.
- Executive Approval: The defense revealed that the executive branch had sanctioned the funds, citing a specific paper trail.
“What the prosecution avoided informing the public so far: That it was the then secretary of the Department of Budget and Management Amenah Pangandaman who issued a memorandum for the President through Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin on October 18, 2022, recommending of the approval of the (OVP’s) request for the confidential funds,” Sison said.
Sison closed by emphasizing that the burden of proof rests entirely on the prosecution and that the Vice President is presumed innocent.
Duterte is currently facing charges involving the misuse of secret funds, unexplained wealth, bribery of education officials, and making grave threats against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the First Lady, and the former House Speaker.