HOUSE prosecutors on Monday dismissed as “fake news” claims circulating on social media that the defense team of Vice President Sara Z. Duterte had dominated the impeachment pre-trial proceedings.
“That is not true. I charge it to fake news,” House lead prosecutor Batangas Rep. Gerville “Jinky Bitrics” Luistro said during a press conference.
Luistro was reacting to social media posts and commentaries claiming the House prosecution panel had been outmaneuvered by Duterte’s defense team during the June 18 pre-trial conference before the Senate impeachment court.
Luistro urged the public to be cautious about narratives circulating online as the impeachment proceedings move toward trial.
“The people should become very cautious now in watching from social media. We should be careful in deciphering what is correct and what is false,” she said.
Luistro said she remains mindful that the prosecution panel represents the interests of the Filipino people in the proceedings.
“Of course, I am conscious that I am representing the interests of the sovereign Filipino people,” Luistro said.
“Hindi po ako papayag na lamunin ng buhay ang laban ng sambayanang Pilipino,” she said.
House prosecution legal spokesperson and to be named private prosecutor Benjamin Tolosa Jr. likewise rejected the narrative, arguing that it was not supported by what actually transpired during the pre-trial conference.
“You know, it’s normal, of course, for parties to claim that they got the upper hand in any particular hearing. But to properly address that, let’s stick to the facts,” Tolosa said.
Tolosa said claims that either side emerged victorious from the proceedings ignore the nature of a pre-trial conference, where no substantive rulings are made.
“When you say ‘kinain ng kalaban,’ what does that mean? It means someone got an upper hand compared to the other,” he said.
“But that’s impossible. Why? Because the clerk of the impeachment court cannot even make any rulings. So that’s factually impossible,” he said.
Instead, Tolosa said the prosecution achieved its objective of ensuring that the proceedings moved forward without delay.
“What I can say also factually is that we were able to secure or successfully achieve our goal,” he said.
“What is that? To ensure that the pre-trial would proceed in an expeditious manner.”
According to Tolosa, the defense attempted at the start of the conference to raise the issue of the required two-thirds voting threshold and argued that it should first be resolved before the pre-trial could continue.
“Right at the start of the pre-trial conference, there was an attempt on the defense to raise an issue regarding the two-thirds threshold, to pose this as something that must be resolved before pre-trial could commence,” he said.
“And that is something that was quickly shot down by Congresswoman Luistro,” he said.
Tolosa said the prosecution was then able to complete the marking of evidence for two Articles of Impeachment and continued work on the remaining articles.
“In fact, as you know, we were able to complete already the marking of evidence for two articles of impeachment,” he said.
The House prosecution panel is currently working on the documentary evidence for the articles involving the alleged misuse of confidential funds and unexplained wealth.
The prosecutors have repeatedly said they are focused on completing the pre-trial process ahead of the July 6 start of the impeachment trial.
