MEDIA organizations, vloggers and impeachment spokespersons should make the increasingly technical trial of Vice President Sara Z. Duterte shorter and easier to explain so ordinary Filipinos do not tune out as the proceedings stretch into succeeding articles.⠀
House trial spokesperson and impeachment adviser Ace Barbers issued the appeal at the Saturday News Forum at Dapo Restaurant in Quezon City, acknowledging that lengthy examinations and complicated legal issues can test even the patience of people who closely follow the proceedings.⠀
“That is the reason why we would like to ask the media and also all the social media vloggers plus na spokesperson to try their best na iksian at maging klaro ang paliwanag sa mga nangyayari sa loob ng sa ganun, maintindihan ang ating mga ordinaryong mamamayan kung ano ang nangyayari sa loob ng impeachment trial,” Barbers noted.⠀
Duterte’s trial has entered its twentieth hearing day with much of the recent proceedings devoted to Article I, which involves documentary trails, audit rules, confidential-fund procedures and testimony from officials who participated in the handling and liquidation of government funds.⠀Barbers acknowledged that such technical discussions could become increasingly difficult for viewers to sustain over several hours of hearings.⠀
“Tama ka kasi naiinip ang taong bayan. Lalo na kapag pinag-uusapan ay technical, medyo legal o technical,” Barbers said.⠀“Kahit nga minsan ang mga nakakaintindi medyo hindi na rin nakakayanan ng sumubaybay sa tagal, sa haba,” he added.
The trial has also generated an enormous secondary discussion online, where clips, excerpts and competing interpretations of testimony can circulate much faster than the complete courtroom proceedings from which they are taken.⠀
Barbers said the prosecution’s communications effort should therefore translate legal concepts into language ordinary Filipinos can immediately grasp while keeping explanations anchored on what actually transpired before the Impeachment Court.⠀
“Kasi minsan nga medyo technical ito, medyo aminin natin minsan kapag teknikal ang usapan ang mga hindi abogado ay hindi na nagkakaroon ng interes o makinig,” Barbers said.⠀
The need to keep Filipinos engaged has assumed greater importance after the Impeachment Court tightened its Rule XVIII restrictions on what parties and trial participants may publicly discuss regarding the merits of the pending case.⠀
Barbers said making factual developments concise and understandable would help keep citizens engaged throughout a trial whose eventual outcome will turn on evidence that can be difficult to appreciate without context.
metrosundaily
