Solon: Grave threats article hardest to defend in impeachment

A day after the presentation of evidence for the article of impeachment concerning Vice President Sara Duterte's alleged grave threats against high-ranking officials, a lawmaker said it would be difficult for the defense to argue that such remarks do not constitute a crime under the law.

In a press briefing prior to the start of the third day of the impeachment trial, Deputy Speaker Paolo Ortega said he believes the prosecution's evidence regarding Duterte's verbal statements is solid.

Ortega noted that had the Vice President made the same statements in a different jurisdiction, she would have immediately been restrained because of the severity of the remarks.

“This is really where it stings, in the grave threats because it seems difficult to defend the direct threat, the open threat like they said. In a different country, it would be the secret service that would be facing you,” he said.

Despite the severity of the issue, the lawmaker explained that the Senate impeachment court is the proper forum where Duterte can fully explain the statements she made.

With the evidence already presented, Ortega noted that it is now up to the defense to address what appears to be a self-explanatory issue, as its witness, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Senior Agent John Mark Calilung, was set for cross-examination.

“The trial is ongoing, this is the proper forum to explain everything and to defend or to lay out the evidence, and yesterday was really a strong day for the evidence,” he explained.

“There may be no universe that would say that the threats were not grave or that it was not a high crime to threaten the life of the Philippine President,” he added.

Ortega also addressed the notions circulating on social media regarding the article of impeachment. He stressed that trolls and critics of the prosecution were merely playing with the semantics of the evidence rather than presenting actual arguments.

On Tuesday, 7 July, the prosecution formally presented its first set of evidence, playing the infamous portion of the Vice President's press conference on 23 November 2024, where she revealed that she had contracted an assassin to kill key public officials in the event that she herself was killed.

“Don’t worry about my security because I already spoke with someone. I told him if I get killed, kill BBM, Liza Araneta, and Martin Romualdez. No joke. No joke. I already gave the order,” Duterte said in Filipino.

“If I die, I said ‘Don’t stop, okay? Until you kill them’ and he said yes,” she added.