Sara Duterte pre-trial extends to Day 3 over evidence volume
MANILA, Philippines — The pretrial conference for the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte is set to be extended for one more day after the marking of evidence remained unfinished on its second day Monday, June 22, due to the volume of documents.
“Kaninang umaga I was very hopeful that we could finish today. But I just checked the ongoing marking. It’s clear to me that we cannot finish today,” Senate Secretary and impeachment court cleark Rey Bantug Jr. said.
(Earlier this morning, I was very hopeful that we could finish today. But I just checked the ongoing marking. It is clear to me that we cannot finish today.)
Article I, which accuses Duterte of alleged misuse of confidential funds, alone is composed of 4,000 documents, Bantug said.
Bantug said it was the "sheer volume of documents" requiring marking that slowed down the pretrial conference, not the pace of the House prosecution panel or Duterte’s legal representatives.
Evidence marking continues. Bantug said four teams are working together to mark documents for the remaining two articles of impeachment.
"We’re done with the Articles III and IV last week. So we are doing the marking for the Articles I and II. And for each article we have devoted two teams each," Bantug said.
At the pretrial conference, the House prosecution panel and Duterte's representatives present their stipulation of facts, list of witnesses and evidence to determine how the impeachment trial will proceed.
House prosecutors have confirmed that the trial will begin on July 6.
Bantug said he hopes the pretrial conference will end on Wednesday, June 24.
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