The House prosecution panel is considering dropping the bribery allegation against Vice President Sara Duterte under Article III of the impeachment case in a bid to shorten the Senate trial and secure a verdict by December.

Public prosecutor and Manila Rep. Joel Chua said the bribery article remains part of the prosecution’s case for now, but acknowledged that dropping it is under consideration.

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

Chua rejected suggestions that prosecutors were considering abandoning Article III because of perceived weaknesses in the case, saying their primary concern was preventing the impeachment trial from dragging on.

“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 added.

Under the pre-trial order governing the presentation of evidence, prosecutors were allotted a total of 92 days to establish their case against Duterte.

Of the four Articles of Impeachment transmitted to the Senate in May, Article III, which contains the bribery allegation, was scheduled to be the last presented by prosecutors.

The allegation centers 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.”

“HOPE” was presumed to refer to Head of Procuring Entity, a position Jumamil-Mercado held at DepEd in 2023.

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

Verdict by December

Chua said prosecutors hope to complete the presentation of evidence from both sides in time for the impeachment court to render a verdict by December.

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

He maintained that the bribery allegation was not weak and that potentially dropping it would be 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,” Chua said.

The prosecution is currently presenting evidence on Article I, involving Duterte’s alleged misuse of confidential funds.

Prosecutors earlier completed their presentation on Article IV, involving Duterte’s alleged grave threats against high-ranking government officials, after six trial dates.

Lead public prosecutor Rep. Gerville Luistro said the panel is targeting 9 September to finish presenting evidence concerning the confidential funds allegation.