Vice President Sara Duterte's impeachment lawyers on Monday refused to say whether they would invoke double jeopardy in connection with her separate grave threats case, leaving the legal question to the counsel handling the criminal proceedings.

Deputy defense spokesperson Justin Nicol Gular said the team would not take a position on the issue while the prosecution was still presenting its case before the Senate impeachment court.

“The matter of jeopardy is a defense that may possibly be raised or is a defense that may be relevant in the proceedings before the trial court,” Gular told reporters.

Gular acknowledged that jeopardy could potentially be raised as a defense in the regular court but said he could not speak for the lawyers handling that proceeding.

“I don't want to preempt Attorney Lim. Matters in relation to the trial court should be referred to him,” said.

Impeachment court spokesperson Reginald Tongol said Sunday that the criminal case and impeachment proceedings are separate and that double jeopardy does not apply because impeachment is not a criminal proceeding. 

He described the Senate impeachment court as a sui generis constitutional tribunal concerned with political accountability and fitness for office.

Gular declined to weigh in on Tongol’s statement, maintaining that the impeachment defense would respond to matters at the appropriate time.

The lawyer also sought to separate the criminal case from the work of Duterte's impeachment team, saying developments in the regular courts had not affected their resolve to defend the vice president.

“There’s no effect to our morale. We’ll continue to do our jobs,” Gular said.

He said the defense lawyers would continue representing Duterte regardless of what happens outside the impeachment proceedings.

“Kaming lahat na abogado, regardless of what happens, we’ll continue to do our best representing the vice president as she is our client,” he said.

“It is our duty to withstand these kinds of developments,” Gular added.###