Sara to testify if needed; Piattos listed as witness

MANILA, Philippines — Although criticized for shunning investigations on her alleged wrongdoings, Vice President Sara Duterte will testify in her trial before the Senate impeachment court “if necessary,” according to her legal defense team.

“I cannot say the exact circumstance yet. It will be part of the legal strategy, which obviously, we will not disclose but in case it is necessary, that will be upon the advice of the counsel, which is the defense,” said Michael Poa, spokesman for Duterte’s 16-member legal team.

“You always say that the Vice President doesn’t appear, but what we are doing now is facing allegations, right? If the circumstances arise that she needs to appear, we would be the ones who will advise our client that she needs to appear and that’s when we will know if she will appear physically,” Poa added.

He also asserted that Duterte’s statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth prior to 2022 when she was elected vice president should not be part of the evidence of the House prosecution team, maintaining that evidence should only cover impeachable offenses committed by an official occupying an impeachable position.

“That was our position. We also put it in our answer. If you remember, we sent an answer to the impeachment complaint. And that’s one of the things we raised,” he said, referring to the impeachment proceedings before the House committee on justice. “Although I have to tread carefully because we cannot discuss the merits. So, I will be very factual,” he added.

“According to the Supreme Court decision in the case of Duterte versus House of Representatives, it is very clear that the impeachable offenses are only the offenses that were allegedly committed while the public official is occupying an impeachable office,” Poa maintained.

“So these things should be included in acts where the respondent is an impeachable official. So, our position is that everything else before 2022 should not be the topic or subject of this impeachment,” Poa added.

The Senate impeachment court, he said, will decide on the issue during the trial. “That’s why we included it as one of our affirmative defenses. And these things should be discussed by the impeachment court. Usually, in a regular court, before the presentation of witnesses and evidence, the first thing to do is to decide on these pending matters,” Poa pointed out.

Opening of ‘green box’

He also said the defense team is likely to file today its response to a manifestation by the House prosecution seeking the opening at the pre-trial conference of the sealed “green box” from the Bureau of Internal Revenue containing the tax records of Duterte and her husband, Manases Carpio, for evidence marking purposes.

“Number one, I just want to clarify, we are not opposing that. In fact, we have yet to submit our comment on the manifestation. We are planning to file a comment by tomorrow (today) at the latest,” Poa said.

The pre-trial conference concluded at past 5 p.m. yesterday. Work now shifts to the drafting of a pre-trial order, according to Senate Secretary Renato Bantug Jr., who presided over the pre-trial as impeachment clerk of court.

Poa earlier yesterday said he regularly updated Duterte on the progress of the pre-trial conference. “I talk to the Vice President every day if not several times a day,” Poa said.

“When that comes out, if we need to comment, we will comment and after that we will look forward to the trial itself,” he said, referring to the pre-trial order to be released soon by the Senate impeachment court.

Poa also said that it is up to the prosecution team of the House of Representatives to present “Mary Grace Piattos” and former overall deputy ombudsman Melchor Carandang as witnesses in the impeachment trial.

“That’s the prerogative of the prosecution as to who they will present. Definitely if they will be presented, we are ready to cross-examine them. We can cross-examine them, we can opt to call them also but in the pre-trial brief we didn’t say anything about such witnesses but definitely, when they are called as witnesses by the prosecution, the defense has the right to cross-examine their witness,” he said.

Based on the prosecution’s pre-trial brief, a copy of which was obtained by The STAR, Mary Grace Piattos is listed as one of the witnesses under Article I of the Articles of Impeachment, covering her alleged misuse of P612.5 million worth of confidential funds.

According to the document, Piattos will “testify on their alleged receipt of confidential funds.”

House prosecutor Bicol SARO Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon said Piattos – either her existence or non-existence – would be the “smoking gun” in the confidential funds case.

Poa added that he himself is ready to testify as he is also listed as one of the witnesses of the House prosecution panel.

“I think the prosecution listed me and I don’t have problems with that. It’s possible, especially if they ask about matters that are not pertaining to my role as counsel of the Vice President, there’s no problem and if they really wish to call me as a witness like they did to the committee on justice, we don’t have a problem there,” the defense spokesman said. –  Daphne Galvez, Marc Jayson Cayabyab