The House prosecution panel is considering dropping the bribery charge against Vice President Sara Duterte under Article III of the impeachment complaint to expedite her trial in the Senate, a lawmaker said.

House prosecutor and Manila Rep. Joel Chua said the article was still “on the table,” although prosecutors were considering reducing the number of articles they would pursue.

“For now, it is still on the table, if we are considering dropping it, yes,” Chua told reporters in a press briefing at the Senate.

Chua said the primary consideration is to prevent unnecessarily prolonging the impeachment trial rather than any perceived weakness in the bribery case.

“We do not want a protracted hearing. That means we don’t want a lengthy hearing,” he said.

“Right from the very beginning, we said that if we believe that our evidence was already strong, if we have presented the evidence we want to present, then we can reduce the articles we want to present,” he said.

Under the impeachment court’s pre-trial order, the prosecution was given 92 days to present its case against Duterte.

Of the four Articles of Impeachment transmitted to the Senate in May, the bribery allegation was scheduled to be presented last.

The case mainly rests on the testimony of former Department of Education Undersecretary Gloria Jumamil-Mercado who claimed she received nine envelopes containing P50,000 each and labeled “HOPE,” an acronym presumed to refer to her 2023 designation as head of the procuring entity.

Jumamil-Mercado said Assistant Secretary Sunshine Fajarda told her the envelopes came from Duterte.

Verdict by December

Chua said the prosecution was considering dropping Article III to meet its target of completing the presentation of evidence by both sides by December.

“Hopefully by December we will already be waiting for a verdict from the impeachment court,” he said.

He stressed that bribery remained a legitimate issue and that the decision was mainly a matter of prioritization.

“It is not weak. All of it is strong. We would not have presented it or placed it as an article if we thought that it was weak,” he said.

The prosecution is currently presenting evidence under Article I, which covers the alleged misuse by Duterte of confidential funds.

Prosecutors previously presented evidence on Article IV, involving alleged grave threats made by Duterte against high-ranking public officials. The article was settled in six trial dates after prosecutors said they had sufficiently established their case.

Lead public prosecutor Rep. Gerville Luistro said the panel aims to finish presenting evidence on the confidential funds by 9 September.