A member of the House prosecution team revealed that former senator Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes would be among the 25 witnesses listed in its pre-trial brief for the upcoming impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
Batangas 2nd District Rep. Gerville Luistro affirmed the query in a radio interview on DZMM, noting that the 11-lawmaker group, along with their team of private prosecutors, agreed that 25 would 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.
“As I said before, [Trillanes] is part of the 25 witnesses who will be submitted through the pre-trial brief that will be filed this coming Monday,” she added.
Drug money claim
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, in which he alleged 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, in which there were undeclared cash flows, were partially confirmed by reports from the Anti-Money Laundering Council.
