Duterte lawyer slams House justice panel hearing as ‘political lynching’

The lawyer of Vice President Sara Duterte on Wednesday criticized the proceedings of the House Committee on Justice, calling its latest hearing a “political lynching” and accusing lawmakers of turning the inquiry into a “witch hunt.”

In a statement, the Atty. Paolo Panelo Jr., who acts as Duterte's lawyer for her perjury complaint against Madriaga, alleging that some House committee members during 22 April hearing lacked the “credibility or moral ascendancy” to investigate issues related to unexplained wealth.

He compared it the current inquiry to the impeachment proceedings against former Chief Justice Renato Corona in 2012, saying the hearing followed what it described as the “Corona playbook,” including scrutiny of statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) and the alleged misinterpretation of financial records.

“The deliberate mischaracterization and weaponization of Covered Transaction Reports and Suspicious Transaction Reports were particularly vile,” the statement said, referring to financial monitoring documents flagged by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).

The Duterte lawyer said he AMLC allegedly presented “raw, decontextualized inflows and outflows” of financial transactions that it claimed could misleadingly inflate the total value of a person’s bank activity.

Panelo cited how a single ₱2-million time deposit rolled over several times could be counted repeatedly in transaction reports, potentially appearing as a much larger amount in cumulative banking records.

“This is not evidence, it is malicious deception, the classic trick of presenting half-truths to create an illusion of guilt,” the statement said.

Panelo likewise criticized former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, alleging that his testimony was based on “double hearsay” and accusing him of maintaining a long-running political feud with the Duterte family.

At the House Committee on Justice hearing on Wednesday, Mamamayang Liberal party-list Rep. Leila de Lima randomly selected 18 financial transactions listed in the annexes submitted by Antonio Trillanes IV and asked the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) to verify whether these were included in the agency’s investigation.

The AMLC confirmed that several of the financial transactions cited in Trillanes’ sworn affidavit involving the vice president were part of its records.