Chua: Bribery case vs Sara Duterte remains strong

MANILA, Philippines — Manila Rep. Joel Chua has clarified that the bribery allegations against Vice President Sara Duterte remain strong, noting that the only reason the prosecution panel is considering this article as expendable is due to priorities.

Chua, a member of the House of Representatives’ prosecution panel, said in a press briefing that they would have not included the bribery allegations as among the four Articles of Impeachment if they had doubts that it cannot be proven before the Senate Impeachment Court.

However, like what the prosecution panel for the impeachment trial of former Chief Justice Renato Corona did, they are considering dropping an article to expedite the proceedings.

READ: House prosecution panel mulls dropping bribery case vs Sara Duterte 

“Hindi mahina, lahat po ‘yan malakas, hindi naman po namin ipe-presenta ‘yan o ilalagay sa article kung sa tingin namin mahina.  It’s just a matter of prioritization,” Chua told reporters.

(It’s not weak, everything is strong, we will not present that or include that in the articles if we think it’s weak.  It’s just a matter of prioritization.)

“Kagaya rin rin sa mga ibang impeachment cases na iprinisenta dito, kung maaalala ninyo sa impeachment ni Chief Justice Corona, hindi naman lahat ng articles ay kanilang iprinisenta,” he added.

(Like the other impeachment cases presented here, if you remember during the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Corona, not all the articles were presented.)

READ: Chua: If prosec is satisfied with case vs Duterte, waiving 1 article is possible 

When the House prosecution panel transmitted the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate, there were four articles mentioned: 

• Article I: culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, and betrayal of public trust through the systematic liquidation misuse, misappropriation, and irregular of confidential funds amounting to P500 million under the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and P112.5 million under the Department of Education (DepEd)
• Article II: culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust when Duterte amassed unexplained wealth manifestly disproportionate to her lawful income and earnings during her incumbency as a public official
• Article III: bribery, graft and corruption, culpable violation of the Constitution, and betrayal of public trust when she gave monetary gifts or payments to DepEd officials to induce the violation and circumvention of procurement and other related laws
• Article IV: culpable violation of the Constitution, high crimes, and betrayal of public trust by contracting for the assassination of the President, the First Lady, and the former speaker of the House, by making grave threats, and by actively inciting sedition against the republic

As of Wednesday, the prosecution has finished presenting its evidence for Article IV.  Earlier, lead public prosecutor and Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro said that they will wrap up Article I by Wednesday, September 9.

However, the proceedings may be hastened if Chua’s previous statements in a Wednesday morning ambush interview — that the prosecution panel is considering no longer presenting Article III — will come true.

However, Chua clarified in the briefing that this is not a new matter, saying that they have said at the start of the trial that if the prosecution is satisfied with the evidence and testimonies at hand, they will let go of one article.

“Right from the very beginning sinabi naman namin na kung sa palagay namin ay matibay na ‘yong mga ebidensya namin, kung nailabas na namin ‘yong mga ebidensya na gusto namin nailabas ay pupwedeng mabawasan ‘yong mga artikulo na aming ipe-presenta,” he added.

(Right from the very beginning we have said that if we think we have a strong evidence, if we will be able to show the evidence that we wanted laid down, we may reduce the articles that we will be presenting.)

The Senate Impeachment Court is looking to expedite the process to ensure that both sides will be heard the soonest.  During the trial, Presiding Officer and Senator-judge Francis Escudero said the court is considering holding whole day proceedings for the impeachment trial, cancelling plenary sessions starting October until the second regular session of the chamber resumes on November 9.

“On October 1 and 2 our trial shall be for the entire day, from morning until afternoon, we will have no session and even up to early evening. On October 5 to 9, also the whole day from 10 am until early evening… On October 12 to 15, Monday to Thursday, whole day as well until early evening,” Escudero suggested.

“We shall be suspending the trial to give way to the committee hearings of the [Senate] committee on finance… We have to await  the approval of the House before break on October 8,” he added.

After budget deliberations, the trial will “proceed to normal programming on November 23 until we finish the case,” Escudero proposed.

In response, Senate Finance committee chairperson JV Ejercito hoped that a caucus could be held to find “the best solution” to accommodate all Senate matters.

Senator-judge Juan Miguel Zubiri also lamented that the impeachment trial takes away the chamber’s time to tackle legislative matters, adding that the 12-hour work days thus far have been exhausting. /mr