The legal defense team of Vice President Sara Duterte has criticized the House Committee on Justice for presenting evidence they claim is irrelevant to the specific allegations in the impeachment complaints.
In a television interview on Thursday, lawyer Michael Poa, spokesperson for the Vice President’s defense, argued that the scope of the clarificatory inquiry had been improperly expanded.
Poa specifically took issue with the inclusion of materials involving the Vice President’s family members rather than her own official actions.
“Merong mga videos pati ni Mayor Baste, which, in our opinion, are not relevant to the proceedings. So it makes us question kung bakit ganon yung pinatunguhan,” Poa said.
The spokesperson was referring to a video clip of Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte, the Vice President’s brother, expressing aggressive remarks toward President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Poa contended that such materials do not contribute to the determination of probable cause for impeachable offenses allegedly committed by the Vice President herself.
“Ano ba talaga ang purpose ng committee hearings? Ang dapat na purpose nito is to determine if there’s probable cause on the impeachable offenses, meaning acts that were committed allegedly during the term of the vice president,” Poa noted. “So if it goes beyond the acts of the Vice President and goes to her family, I think that is way beyond the scope of the purpose of these proceedings.”
Furthermore, Poa defended the Vice President’s decision to skip the hearings, explaining that the defense team was not provided with advance copies of the testimonies or documents used during the proceedings.
He argued that this lack of transparency made it impossible to provide an informed response.
“Those pieces of evidence, allegedly pieces of evidence and testimonies that were given, hindi naman kami nabigyan ng advance copy ng mga dokumento niyan,” he said.
“So practically speaking, how is the Vice President or the defense even expected to answer right then and there intelligently kung hindi pa namin na-examine ng mga dokumento?”
Despite these objections, the House Committee on Justice has already voted unanimously to find probable cause for impeachment.
The panel is set to finalize the articles of impeachment on May 4, after which the matter will be elevated to the House plenary for a decisive vote.