[Updated June 23, 2026, 8:51 p.m.]
MANILA, Philippines — The defense team of Vice President Sara Duterte asserted on Tuesday that it has enough manpower for the marking of evidence in the pretrial conference for the vice president’s impeachment trial.
It also observed that it is the prosecution who ‘lack personnel.’
These statements come after the House prosecution panel requested the defense to deploy additional teams to participate in the pretrial conference.
“It was actually the private prosecutors who lacked the personnel to mark the exhibits,” defense lawyer Mark Vinluan told the media.
“Maybe Representative [Gerville] Luistro just doesn’t understand much because they don’t participate all day,” he noted.
He added: “They just appear in the morning, then they leave, and they leave the rest of the task to the private prosecutors who are handling the case.”
READ: Luistro, Poa admit: Pre-trial not yet near its ending
With the pretrial only two days away from its scheduled end date, Vinluan suggested that it would help if Luistro and the other public prosecutors are marking the documents as well.
“Personally, for me it will contribute if they are there because [the prosecution] will have additional manpower,” Vinluan explained.
However, the defense team’s spokesperson Michael Poa insisted that with or without the public prosecution’s presence, he “doesn’t see any difference.”
“Let’s not make a big fuss out of that,” he said, referring to the number of lawyers in each team marking evidence.
Poa pointed out once again that the volume of the documents being marked is extending the pretrial beyond what both sides expected.
“In the interest of fairness, it’s not just the defense or the prosecution, because both sides have many documents,” he added.
READ: Defense refuses House prosecutors’ ‘common markings’ request in pretrial
In a separate interview, House prosecution member Rep. Terry Ridon denied Vinluan’s claims, saying they were “false.”
“That’s not true because I’m the one who finishes, I’m here until the end… On the first day I also closed the meeting. Yesterday, I was here at the end and today, what time is it? It’s half past five – I’m still here,” Ridon asserted.
The congressman also took a dig at an absent member of the defense team on Tuesday.
“I’m looking for Shiela Sison. She’s not here today,” he added.
Sison is one of Duterte’s lawyers.
Ridon then explained that the duration of the pretrial is not a question of “manpower,” contrary to the sentiment of Vinluan.
He began: “Firstly, it is a volume question in the number of pages required to be signed by the three parties: defense, prosecution and the Senate clerk of court.”
“Secondly, the clerk of court itself also says that their staff is limited. It was never a question of a lack of prosecutors whether a public or private,” Ridon further said.
The pretrial has reached its third day, but both the prosecution and the defense have yet to finish marking their evidence for two of the four Articles of Impeachment.
These are Articles I and II referring to Duterte’s alleged misuse of confidential funds, and accumulation of unexplained wealth.
Article III and IV were already tackled on the first day of pretrial.
Article III covers Duterte’s supposed bribery on Department of Education officials, while Article IV refers to the alleged threats of the vice president against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez. /apl /mr