The House prosecution panel has reorganized its internal assignments as it ramps up preparations for the upcoming impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte before the Senate impeachment court.
Batangas 2nd District Representative Gerville Luistro, the lead prosecutor, said the changes were made to allow her to focus on overseeing the entire prosecution effort instead of directly leading one of the four articles of impeachment.
“We made a little adjustment doon sa assignment of team leader. We resolved that I should be focusing on being the lead prosecutor,” Luistro said in an interview. “And that is why I yielded to Cong. Kit Flores as one of the team leaders of these articles.”
Under the revised structure, Manila 3rd District Representative Joel Chua will head the team handling allegations involving the misuse of confidential funds, while Bukidnon 2nd District Representative Jonathan Keith Flores will lead the group assigned to the bribery charges.
Despite the reassignment, Luistro emphasized that she remains actively involved in preparing all four articles of impeachment.
“I am actually involved in four articles. As a matter of fact, I am attending all meetings, in all workshops, and in all mock trials, regardless of which article is that,” she said.
She explained that the restructuring was designed to ensure that each article has a dedicated leader focused on building the case.
“We wanted somebody to focus really and take care of each article, and that is why we made it a point that apart from me overseeing what’s happening in (the third) article, which I was supposed to lead, minabuti namin na lagyan na lang nang tig-iisang team leader who are even very, very competent on this matter,” Luistro added (We decided to assign one team leader to each article because they are highly competent and can fully focus on the matter).
The House panel has accused Duterte of alleged misuse of confidential funds, unexplained wealth, bribery and graft, as well as making threats against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez.
Luistro said prosecutors are spending considerable time reviewing documents and refining their presentation of evidence.
“With respect to our preparation, we have a lot of readings to do… We are doing workshops on the presentation of evidence, and we are doing mock trials,” she said.
The prosecution team is currently awaiting formal instructions from the Senate impeachment court regarding the trial timetable and procedural rules.