HOUSE impeachment prosecutor and 1-Rider Party-list Rep. Rodge Gutierrez on Tuesday said the prosecution may consider the P12.3-billion disallowances in the Department of Education when Vice President Sara Duterte was education secretary as additional evidence in her Senate trial.
He told a news conference that the Commission on Audit audited DepEd and made the disallowances in the regular course of examining agency expenditures.
“But if it would be found to be in line with ‘yung mga allegations po natin sa impeachment complaint, then I don’t think the prosecution team would…shy away from making use of such evidence po,” he said.
However, Gutierrez said he believes the prosecution has in its possession evidence strong enough to convince the Senate impeachment court to convict Vice President Duterte and remove her from office.
“Without saying too much po, I think we have enough evidence. We have, what we would say, I think it’s more than enough. Especially considering na, in our opinion…na ang impeachment case po ay not strictly criminal. It’s, sui generis. It’s more akin to an administrative matter po,” he said.
“So yung strictest requirements of evidence that would apply to a criminal case might not apply here. It depends of course on the impeachment court kung ano pong decision nila…So, as far as we’re concerned, I think we have enough evidence to at least convince our senator judges why they should side with the prosecution,” he added.
However, he pointed out that it would strengthen the prosecution’s case if more evidence surfaces against VP Duterte.
“So I’m pretty sure that the prosecution team will be open to all of these additional avenues to secure even more evidence po,” he stressed.
For her part, House Assistant Majority Leader Rep. Pammy Zamora of Taguig City said the committee on good government is planning to inquire into the DepEd disallowances during VP Duterte’s time as education secretary.
“On whether we plan to bring this up sa good government committee? Yes. In fact napag-usapan na namin yan ng ibang members dahil sa proposal ni Congressman (Jefferson) Khonghun, balak po talaga yung talakayin sa committee on good government,” she said.
The committee is chaired by Manila Rep. Joel Chua, another member of the House impeachment prosecution team.
