Luistro: Duterte appearance or not, trial will proceed

Amid the possibility that Vice President Sara Duterte would elect to skip attendance in her coming impeachment trial at the Senate, House Lead Public Prosecutor Gerville Luistro said that process would still continue as constitutionally mandated.

Under the Senate Rules of Impeachment, Luistro said that the absence of Duterte or anyone from her council would only warrant for an automatic plea of not guilty to be entered on her behalf.

“Kahit hindi dumating ang bise presidente, kahit hindi siya mag file ng answer, kahit hindi dumating yung defense lawyers nila, tutuloy parin yung trial,” she said.

(Even if the Vice President doesn’t arrive, even if they don’t file answer, even if her defense lawyers don’t arrive, the trial will proceed)

Such approach was undertaken by the Vice President during the recent hearings of the House Committee on Justice wherein four complaints against her were tried to determine sufficiency in substance, form, and grounds as well as the existence of probable cause.

Duterte and her camp explained that their refusal to attend in the aforementioned proceedings were based on its belief that the Justice panel’s process was not constitutionally carried out and that it was not the “proper forum” to address such accusations.

At that point, the Senate, in its capacity to serve as an impeachment court, was perceived to be the forum that the Vice President was referring to.

However, with the upper house officially convening as a court on Monday, 18 May, and the subsequent summon for Duterte’s appearance, her defense camp’s response to the matter did not explicitly mention whether she would be participating.

In light of such pronouncements, Luistro maintained that it would not be favorable for the case of Duterte if she ultimately decides to waive her presence in all hearings that will be carried out.

“I believe that it would be disadvantageous for her if she would not be presenting her evidence because there’s already evidence presented by the complaint, and the same evidence will be presented to the impeachment court,” she said.

Senator-Judges exclusive judgment

Regardless of such developments, Luistro explained that the Vice President’s non-attendance did not automatically mean that she would be convicted for the impeachable offenses lodged in the Articles of Impeachment.

The solon said that the role to determine the resolution of the case would fall to the exclusive judgment of all 24 senator-judges in the hearings.

That being said, Luistro said that in the event that the only evidence that would be presented was that of the prosecutors, similar to their situation during the Justice panel hearings, she said that the threshold to warrant a conviction would be low.

In the event that senators ultimately do decide to acquit Duterte, the Batangas representative simply mentioned that the public would be closely watching all the events that unfold in the trial.