House Lead Public Prosecutor Gerville Luistro stated that their team of prosecutors in the upcoming impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte are prepared to submit a manifestation with regards to the latter’s reply to the Articles of Impeachment.
Luistro noted that the document would not be considered as a reply as it was their belief that the response of Duterte did not really answer the allegations raised against her.
“Well, our position is not to file a reply because we believe that they did not dispute any allegation of facts in the Article of Impeachment. Nevertheless, we will be filing a manifestation, hopefully today or tomorrow, to explain our position why we opted not to reply,” she explained in vernacular.
The Batangas 2nd District representative expressed that the group’s statement would be handed over to both the impeachment court and the camp of the Vice President.
Luistro, however, acknowledged that newly-elected Acting Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian stated that the Senate was not set to conduct any official business on Thursday, 4 June.
In a previous interview, the solon noted that they were keen to issue their response within the week, but given the recent developments, they may consider the full five-day window to submit their response.
“If no one will be there to receive it, then perhaps until Monday. Because we are given until Monday to file our reply. Nonetheless, this is not a reply. We are not filing a reply. We are filing a manifestation instead, which contains our position while we opted not to file a reply,” she stated.
As for the prosecution team itself, their preparations remain ongoing as they are collating evidence in an effort to secure Duterte’s conviction for the impeachable offenses she was alleged of committing.
House Public Prosecution Panel spokesperson Zia Alonto Adiong stated that the team was well aware of the recent cases against Senators Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa and Jinggoy Estrada, perceived allies of the respondent Vice President.
Regardless of the cases, Adiong noted that the cases against Dela Rosa and Estrada were not in any form concerned with influencing the impeachment as it was concerned with separate issues from the trial itself.
“If you look at the individual cases that the individual senators are now facing, these are the cases that have no connection to the impeachment trial,” he stated.
“It is also beyond our control that, again, unfortunately, some of the senators now that faces individual legal battles happen to be associated or happen to be in a group associated with the Vice President,” the solon added.
