SAGIP Partylist Rep. Paolo Marcoleta accused the House Committee on Justice that it was conducting a “fishing expedition” in its ongoing impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte.

Despite not being an actual member of the Justice panel, Marcoleta has become a common fixture in its recent hearings, providing his comments on the committee’s process which was adopted from the 19th Congress.

This Wednesday, the committee was presented with reports from the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) into the covered or suspicious transactions that it had detected from the accounts of Duterte and her husband Mans Carpio.

The solon sought to get clarification whether the labeling of the council of a transaction as suspicious automatically warranted it to be illegal or unlawful in nature.

However, since he was not an actual member of the Justice panel, committee Chairperson Luistro simply accepted Marcoleta’s statements as a manifestation.

“That is a manifestation which does not require any answer,” said Luistro.

Marcoleta had also noted, earlier in the hearing that the acquisition of the panel of the Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) of the Duterte and Carpio, that the two complaints had not directly included the SALNs of the latter couple as evidence.

As such, he claimed that the petitioners were merely asking the committee to produce evidence on their behalf.

The Batangas 2nd District Rep., on the other hand, maintained that the issuance of subpoenas to produce documents pertaining to the complaints was well within the rights of the committee as mandated in the Constitution.