A member of the House prosecution team confirmed that former senator Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes was part of the list of 25 witnesses included in its pre-trial brief for the upcoming impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
Batangas 2nd District Rep. Gerville Luistro affirmed the query through a radio interview on DZMM, noting that the 11 lawmaker group along with their team of private prosecutors agreed that 25 was going to be sufficient to support their case.
“It seems that 25 is our final number, yesterday before we went our separate ways we even browsed our pre-trial brief…and it seems to us that the list of 25 witnesses is the final list which will be presented in support of the Articles of Impeachment,” Luistro said in Filipino.
“Like I said before, [Trillanes] is part of the 25 witnesses which will be submitted through the pre-trial brief which will be filed this coming Monday,” she added.
Prior to his inclusion in the list, Trillanes was called as one of the resource persons in the hearings conducted by the House Committee on Justice into the complaints filed against the Vice President.
There, he presented his affidavit where he aired allegations that the Dutertes had amassed ill-gotten wealth and were guilty of other crimes linked to corruption.
One of his more talked about accusations was that the family known for their stern opposition to illegal drugs, had been involved in the drug trade as well through receipt of P181.6 million from alleged drug lord Samuel “Sammy” Uy.
While the previous claim remains relatively unproven, some of his allegations concerning the supposed joint bank accounts of Sara, her husband Mans Carpio, and father Rodrigo Duterte wherein there were undeclared cash flows were somewhat confirmed through the reports of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).
Aside from Trillanes, Luistro mentioned that the self-proclaimed aide of the Vice President was also part of their roster of witnesses in the trial.
As for her take on the Senate quorum issue and whether or not suspended senators should be counted, the House lead Public Prosecutor maintained that any public official that was detained or served an arrest warrant by virtue of a graft or plunder charge are deemed suspended under law.
Luistro said that such a precedent was established through the governing laws which lay the framework for such cases to be pursued.
“The law says that they are suspended when they have cases, even prior to conviction, the plunder law and anti-graft and corrupt practices act already provide that when a public official has a case they are suspended,” she said.
Under both of the laws mentioned by the lawmaker, provisions indicate that a politician filed with a valid criminal complaint for either graft or plunder are automatically suspended.
However, the laws also indicate that such suspension should come from a order issued by the court handling the case.
“Any public officer against whom any criminal prosecution under valid information under this Act whatever stage of execution and mode of participation, is pending in court, shall be suspended from office,” Section 5 of Republic Act No. 7080 read.
In the case that a lawmaker is suspended, Luistro expressed her belief that they should no longer be considered in the “all members” clause of the Constitution when determining quorum as well as the threshold for voting on impeachment.
She said that her ideology stems from the fact that senators were voted in by Filipinos to represent their “interest,” noting that such representation could not be carried out when they are detained.
“The reason why we have senators is because they are representing the interest of the Filipino people. So my question is, if jailed, unable to attend trial, how can you say he is representing the interest of the Filipino people,” the solon said.
Discussions over the topic arose following the recent arrest of Senator Jinggoy Estrada based on graft and plunder complaints from the Office of the Ombudsman as well as the public absence of Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa due to an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
It was further highlighted after the group of Senator Sherwin “Win” Gatchalian declared a Senate quorum with only 12 senators despite the Constitution requiring a majority of all sitting senators.
