Daily TribunePanelo also questioned the impeachment court’s rules limiting senator-judges to two minutes for questioning witnesses.
Senate President Win Gatchalian and Senate impeachment court presiding officer Chiz Escudero on the second day of the trial of Vice President Sara Duterte on Tuesday, 7 July.
Aram Lascano
Former chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo on Tuesday criticized Senate impeachment court presiding officer Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero, accusing him of allowing the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte to become a “propaganda proceeding” instead of a proper judicial process.
Speaking on cable TV, Panelo said the prosecution should not have been allowed to proceed with its opening presentation before the impeachment court had ruled on the defense’s objections.
“I thought I was watching an impeachment trial. Instead, it was a propaganda proceeding,” Panelo said.
He argued that once the prosecution had delivered its opening remarks, any subsequent order striking portions of the presentation from the record would have little practical effect.
“My God, the whole country heard it. How can you even strike that out?” he said.
Panelo also questioned the impeachment court’s rules limiting senator-judges to two minutes for questioning witnesses.
“They’re limiting the judges to two minutes. My goodness, don’t they know they’re a collegiate body just like the Supreme Court and the Sandiganbayan? Questions should continue until they find the truth,” he said.
Despite his political differences with Sen. Risa Hontiveros, Panelo said she raised appropriate questions during the proceedings, particularly on whether prosecutors had established the existence of an assassin and whether the alleged acts constituted impeachable offenses.
Panelo also disclosed that he had advised Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian to amend the impeachment rules, claiming the Senate leader agreed that changes would be considered.
He likewise criticized the prosecution’s decision to present witnesses solely to authenticate video footage of Duterte’s controversial statements, arguing that the video’s authenticity had never been disputed by the defense.
“They wasted the time of the people and the court listening to someone authenticate something that was never questioned,” he said.
Panelo also questioned why prosecutors began presenting evidence under Article IV of the Articles of Impeachment instead of following the sequence of the charges, suggesting that they may not have been ready to proceed with the earlier articles.
Looking ahead to the continuation of the trial, Panelo said testimony from former Office of the Vice President chief of staff Zuleika Lopez could bolster the defense’s claim that Duterte and her staff had been subjected to oppression.
He reiterated his position that Duterte’s controversial remarks against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the others were merely “conditional and hypothetical” and therefore did not constitute a criminal threat.
