Trillanes wanted out of impeachment trial witness list

Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV said Thursday that it was his decision to be dropped as a witness in the ongoing impeachment trial against Vice President Sara Duterte, opting to conduct a press conference instead to disclose his evidence.

“Earlier in the day, I requested the House prosecution under Chair Jinky Luistro to formally withdraw my name as a witness for the prosecution. This way, the prosecution panel would be relieved from the pressure it is going through,” Trillanes wrote.

His cryptic message came after public prosecutor Rep. Gerville Luistro made the manifestation in open court that Trillanes would no longer be a part of their witness list for any Article of Impeachment.

The statement, however, contradicted the lead prosecutor’s earlier remarks seemingly insinuating that the decision was solely the prerogative of their group.

In a press conference after the proceedings on Thursday, Luistro said that Trillanes had “intimidated” his request to the prosecution team and that she would refrain from disclosing further details about the exchange.

Prior to the development, there were rumors that there were some senator-judges that were attempting to block Trillanes’ testimony–namely presiding officer Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero.

The former senator would even make a separate post about the rumblings, maintaining that he had plenty of evidence against Duterte.

“I hope this is not true, Sen. Chiz. I have a lot of new damaging evidence against Sara. Let the senator-judges and the people decide if the evidence is reliable or not,” he said in vernacular.

Luistro, for her part, said that the panel was not privy to such information, reiterating that the decision depended solely on their intended witness.

“It was his decision, so I think whether I am disappointed or not, it doesn’t matter because it belongs to the witness themselves, the decision whether to testify or not,” the lawmaker said.

“Like he said, he will conduct a press conference tomorrow. I will probably watch it, so I can hear what he wanted to say in the impeachment court,” she added.

Even with the absence of Trillanes from the trial, Luistro said that they would just be asking the impeachment court to take judicial notice of the presentations that the former senator made during the hearings conducted at the House Committee on Justice.

There, Trillanes presented information regarding the alleged dealings between alleged drug lord Sammy Uy and the Duterte family, and the alleged joint bank account between Sara and former President Rodrigo Duterte.

The trial against the Vice President is set to resume on Monday, 5 October, intending to present its witness from the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) regarding the transactions it had recorded from the accounts of Duterte and her husband Atty. Manases “Mans” Carpio.

It was previously revealed during the same Justice panel hearings that the AMLC had tracked P6.7 billion in covered and suspicious transactions from the bank accounts of the Duterte-Carpio couple between 2006 to 2025.