BATANGAS Rep. Gerville “Jinky Bitrics” Luistro on Wednesday said that the latest stance taken by Vice President Sara Z. Duterte’s camp, which says she is prepared to answer only in the Senate, only bolsters the impression that the evidence already laid before the House Committee on Justice is enough to move the impeachment case forward.
The Justice panel chair made the point in her opening remarks as the committee resumed its April 29 hearing after a previous session that had already put on record the Vice President’s SALNs, the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) report, corporate records from the Securities and Exchange Commission and parts of former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV’s sworn statement.
“Una, sabi ng mga abogado, handa raw sumagot ang Bise Presidente, handa raw siyang humarap—pero sa Senado. Hindi dito, kundi sa Senado,” Luistro, a lawyer, said.
“Napaisip tuloy tayo: kung doon siya sasagot—hindi ba’t kinikilala na rin niya na meron ng sapat na ebidensya dito, at patungo na talaga sa Senado ang kasong ito?” Luistro asked.
Luistro said the camp’s reaction, taken as a whole, was telling because instead of dismantling the numbers already placed before the committee, it effectively shifted the argument to timing, venue and process.
“At yan ang tatlong bagay na ginawa nila: una, nagdeklara sila na handa silang sumagot sa Senado, pangalawa, sinabihan tayo na mag-ingat daw tayo, at pangatlo, ang pag-file ng panibagong reklamo laban sa atin,” Luistro pointed out.
She said the committee would not be distracted from its constitutional duty by external messaging or pressure, particularly when the path of the evidence was already becoming clearer.
“At ngayon, narito na tayo sa puntong ito—April 29. Itutuloy natin ang pagdinig,” Luistro stressed.
Luistro reminded the committee that the House was not being asked to decide guilt, but only whether the record now contains enough basis to let the constitutional process proceed.
She nevertheless suggested that the Vice President’s own camp may already be conceding the direction of that process by reserving its answer for the trial stage instead of the probable cause stage.
“Gaya ng lagi nating sinsabi, wala tayong papanigan kundi ang katotohanan: Saan man tayo dalhin ng ebidensya, doon tayo susunod—gaano man ito kalayo, gaano man ito kahirap—doon tayo pupunta,” Luistro declared.
“Our mandate is clear, and our resolve is firm. Guided by the Constitution, anchored on evidence, and faithful to the trust of the Filipino people—and above all, led by the clear voice of our conscience—we shall continue this hearing,” Luistro added.
She closed that line of thought by contrasting the camp’s call for caution with the committee’s insistence that what matters now is candor before the public record.
“Ang sabi ng kampo ng Bise Presidente: ‘Let us be cautious.’ Mag-ingat daw tayo. Ang sagot natin: ‘Let us be truthful.’ Magpakatotoo tayo.”
In the April 22 hearing, the committee entered what she called the territory of “forensic truth,” where official records, not rhetoric, drove the discussion.
The Ombudsman-confirmed SALNs showed Duterte’s net worth rising from P34 million in 2016 to P88 million in 2024, even as from 2019 onward she declared zero cash or cash deposits.
She said the AMLC then confirmed more than 630 covered transactions and 33 suspicious transactions amounting to P6.7 billion, while the committee also tested Trillanes’ documents and found that the transactions randomly selected from his annexes matched official records.
