VP defense team to present ‘surprise witnesses’

MANILA, Philippines — For security reasons, the defense team of impeached Vice President Sara Duterte has opted to keep secret the identities of some of its 90 witnesses, but would be ready to present them as “surprise witnesses” if necessary during her trial.

This was according to defense spokesman Michael Poa in an interview with Bilyonaryo News Channel.

Poa also rejected insinuations that Duterte’s legal team was just copying the witnesses of the House of Representatives prosecution panel.

“I took exception to that because we’re not copying their witnesses. We submitted a pre-trial brief at the same time. So it’s not as if we copied it. But most are similar to their witnesses,” Poa said.

“We did not include certain witnesses, especially their names, for security reasons. So maybe that’s where our witnesses differ. But I cannot share their names for security purposes. And that’s part and parcel of the guidelines we gave at the pre-trial conference. That we cannot name the witnesses for as long as we state the purpose, what their purpose is,” Poa added.

The House prosecution has said it would present at least 57 witnesses during the impeachment trial. The Senate impeachment court has approved a 92-day trial for Duterte.

“We just say five witnesses from, for example, the Office of the President, or five witnesses from the Department of Education, for example, to prove certain allegations, or to disprove certain allegations of the prosecution. That’s what we’re doing. Now, that’s allowed,” he explained.

The approved trial period – contained in the 14-page Pre-Trial Order signed by Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian on June 29 – is much shorter than the previous estimate of seven to eight months.

Based on the order, 62 trial dates have been set for House prosecutors and 30 for the Vice President’s defense team.

“On the part of the defense, we’ve been preparing for this for over a year now. In fact, we had our first impeachment complaint last year and we were ready to go to trial then, and we’re ready to go to trial now. But the first to present their evidence would be the prosecution. So, for us, we’re hoping that the public would be patient enough to also wait for the evidence of the defense,” Poa explained.

He added the defense team may decide not to present all 90 witnesses. “It will still depend on the case that the prosecution will make. It will depend on how the prosecution presents their evidence and we will have to react accordingly,” he pointed out.

Poa also denied that the points raised by the defense team were just technicalities.

“Number one, the issues we are raising are constitutional by nature. It goes, it delves into due process. For example... a lot of the alleged or purported evidence that they are bringing up to the impeachment court are things that were not even attached to the impeachment complaints filed,” he said.

“And for the defense, depending on what they present, that’s the time we actually determine what we need to bring out, and what we don’t need,” Poa said.