House Deputy Speaker Rep. Janette Garin came to the rescue of House Public Prosecutor Rep. Gerville Luistro, who was publicly mocked for visible saliva during her opening statement at the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, noting that such discourse was unnecessary.

“Firstly, again, I was surprised. Why are we even going to that low a level of discourse? No person has no saliva,” Garin said when asked about the matter during a press conference at the House of Representatives on Friday, 10 July.

“Is it normal? Yes! So why focus on that?” she stressed.

Aside from condemning the criticism of Luistro, the former Health Secretary of the Philippines also sought to clarify claims aired by one of her colleagues, who alleged that there was a link between visible saliva and a runny nose and lying.

Garin expressed that such information was nothing more than a way to distract the public from the real issue and the actual performance of both the prosecutors and Duterte’s defense camp throughout the proceedings.