The House Prosecution Panel decided to refrain from presenting the testimonies of both Office of the Vice President (OVP) Chief of Staff Atty. Zuleika Lopez and House Legislative Security Bureau Executive Director Capt. Belinda Bello as witnesses for the impeachment trial against Vice President Sara Duterte.

Manifesting the development before the Senate impeachment court, House private prosecutor Atty. Lorna Kapunan expressed that the information from Lopez and Bello would be “totally unnecessary, redundant and a surplusage" given that the purposes of their testimonies were already established.

Kapunan mentioned that there were three specific reasons why they viewed the OVP Chief of Staff’s testimony as relevant to their case, particularly when it comes to the 23 November 2024 press conference wherein the Vice President uttered her threats to the president, first lady, and the former House speaker.

The purposes that the veteran lawyer said were to confirm whether Lopez was present at the House detention center where Duterte had uttered her seditious remarks, if media personnel were present during the online press conference, and to verify if the recordings were accurate.

Kapunan said that all of the aforementioned reasons were proven not only through the questioning of the prosecution, but also through the manifestations and cross-examination of the defense camp of the Vice President.

She noted that Bello would have been called for a similar purpose, which was to verify if she had received a transfer order that would send Lopez from the detention center to the Women’s Correctional Institution in Mandaluyong.

With the removal of two witnesses, Kapunan mentioned that they were effectively reducing the trial dates that were established under the pre-trial order that the Senate issued prior to the start of the proceedings.

Kapunan clarified that their decisions were purely based on the fact that all purposes were already established, even thanking the senator-judges who were able to flatten out information through their clarificatory questions.

“We have decided from the evidence presented and from everything in consideration that we will not present these two witnesses,” she said.