HOUSE prosecutors are targeting the first or second week of October to complete their presentation on Vice President Sara Duterte’s alleged unexplained wealth, even if the defense declines to admit the matters covered by their requests for admission.
Bicol Saro party-list Rep. Terry Ridon said on September 10 that the target already accounts for that possibility. It concerns the Article II presentation, rather than a deadline for the entire impeachment trial.
“The best target that you would want to have would be again to terminate it by the first or second week of October,” Ridon told reporters.
A reporter asked whether the timetable assumed defense cooperation with requests that could remove the need for some witnesses. Ridon said prosecutors had considered the alternative.
“Factored in na po ito whether they will admit to these requests or not,” he responded.
He explained that “many of the witnesses naman po are particularly related to the bank accounts” were later added to the prosecution’s documentary list. Their testimony is part of the team’s preparation for presenting the financial evidence.
The impeachment court gave the defense 15 days to respond to the prosecution’s 104 requests for admission and said the response period would not stop the presentation of evidence. Such requests seek to establish matters that the parties need not repeatedly prove through witnesses.
Ridon said the prosecution might also decide against calling everyone on its list if the evidence already presented sufficiently established its case.
“So pwede rin naming hindi i-exhaust ang kabuan ng nakalista sa witness list para sa unexplained wealth.”
“But again, our objective really is to be able to prove in the soonest time,” he said, referring to the matters the prosecution must establish under Article II.
The approach follows the team’s decision under Article I to forgo the 15 remaining witnesses after assessing the confidential fund evidence already presented.
In discussing what would follow the unexplained wealth presentation, Ridon referred to moving on to bribery or completing the prosecution’s evidence, while refraining from announcing a decision to abandon the bribery article.
At the close of the briefing, Ridon said additional documents were still being marked today. He identified bank and tax records concerning Duterte, her husband, and their companies as material obtained through the impeachment court’s subpoenas and made available to the parties.
He said he hoped that by Monday, the team would be ready with its documents and witnesses.
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