Pre-trial to extend to Day 3 due to volume of documents — Bantug

MANILA, Philippines — The pre-trial conference for the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte will be extended another day due to the volume of documents, impeachment clerk of court Rey Bantug said on Monday.

According to Bantug, the documents requiring marking for Article I regarding the alleged misuse of confidential funds numbered around 4,000.

“This morning, I was very hopeful that we’ll finish today, but when i checked the ongoing marking, it’s clear to me that we cannot finish today. [Because of the] sheer volume of documents,” Bantug told the media.

READ: Day 2 of Sara Duterte impeachment pretrial begins

The thousands of documents constitute both the defense’s and the prosecution’s evidence.

In a separate interview, the spokesperson for Duterte’s defense team, Atty. Michael Poa, echoed Bantug’s observation, saying that the pre-trial may extend to Thursday.

“Of course we want to speed up, but we’re anticipating that maybe we’ll reach the marking by Thursday… Hopefully we’ll finish as soon as possible,” Poa said.

On its second day, the defense and the House prosecution marked the evidence on Articles I and II — the second refers to the alleged accumulation of unexplained wealth.

With this, Bantug hopes that the pre-trial will finish on Wednesday.

Despite the sudden extension to the conference, Bantug insisted that they are still “on track,” as the pre-trial was allotted time until June 25.

So far, the pre-trial conference has only covered Articles III and IV, which tackle the alleged bribery of Department of Education officials and the proclamation of a supposed hitman against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., among others. /das