THE impeachment trial of Vice-President (VP) Sara Duterte-Carpio is three days behind schedule, with weather-related suspensions and longer-than-planned witness testimony slowing proceedings, according to the Senate impeachment court spokesman.
“So the number of days allotted for the prosecution will simply be extended, eating into the days originally allocated for the defense,” spokesman Reginald A. Tongol told a news briefing in Filipino on Wednesday. “The defense’s number of days will just be reduced accordingly.”
The House of Representatives prosecution panel has asked the Senate impeachment court to extend hearing hours and add Fridays to recover lost time, saying interruptions could also affect witnesses expected to testify on alleged misuse of confidential funds.
House prosecution spokesman Robert Ace S. Barbers said the delays were not intentional but were slowing the trial and the effort to establish the truth.
“Hopefully, we can move faster because, as they say, justice delayed is justice denied,” Mr. Barbers said in mixed English and Filipino during an online press briefing.
“We cannot cut the whole story short because the public will get confused,” private prosecutor Lorna Patajo-Kapunan told the same briefing in Filipino.
Ms. Kapunan proposed starting impeachment proceedings at 3 p.m. while the Senate conducts committee hearings in the morning. Mr. Barbers backed the proposal and suggested adding Friday as a full hearing day.
“If we want to finish this as early as possible… perhaps we should add another day,” he said.
Ms. Kapunan said a continuous schedule was important because interruptions could allow a witness to be coached before returning to the proceedings, particularly when dealing with a hostile witness.
She said the ideal arrangement would be to complete a witness’ direct examination, cross-examination, redirect and recross in one continuous setting.
“The direct examination, cross-examination, redirect and recross of a witness should be continuous, all in one setting, in one day,” Ms. Kapunan said. “That’s the ideal setup.”
Mr. Tongol said the impeachment court is considering holding proceedings from Thursday to Saturday to make up for lost days.
It may also extend trial hours by one to two hours, allow the parties to present more than one witness a day, or swap the schedules of Senate plenary sessions and impeachment proceedings.
“Even in ordinary courts, the parties find it difficult to conduct virtual hearings, and these are held only in exceptional cases and on a very limited number of occasions,” he said.
Six of the 27 witnesses the House prosecution plans to present for Article I have testified, Mr. Tongol said. Article I concerns the alleged misuse of confidential funds by the Office of the Vice-President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd).
“We should be on the ninth or 10th witness already,” he said.
Vice-presidential staff Gina F. Acosta, who served as Ms. Duterte’s special disbursing officer for OVP confidential funds, is scheduled to testify for a second day when the trial resumes.
The impeachment pre-trial order provides for 92 proposed trial dates, with 62 allotted to the House prosecution and 30 to Ms. Duterte’s defense team.
Mr. Tongol said the court initially planned to limit the presentation of evidence to one witness per day.
“It was supposed to be at most two days per witness, but they really stretched it to three days, so we were indeed slightly delayed in our scheduled number of days,” he said.
Article I has 31 trial dates, followed by Article III on alleged bribery and corruption within the DepEd with eight dates, and Article II on Ms. Duterte’s unexplained wealth, alleged false statement of assets, liabilities and net worth, and continued business interests with 12 dates.
The House prosecution previously withdrew six witnesses for Article IV, which alleges grave threats against President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. to save the court time. — Kaela Patricia B. Gabriel and Pexcel John Bacon