Defense refuses House prosecutors’ ‘common markings’ request in pretrial

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte’s defense team has denied the request of the House prosecution panel for common markings during the pretrial of Duterte’s impeachment.

In an interview on Tuesday with defense lawyer and spokesperson Michael Poa, he shared that their camp refused common markings of similar documents, as they will be using the same documents during the trial itself.

“Their documents are theirs, and our documents are ours. We’re just being very careful with how we do things… We want our own documents to be marked even if they are similar. These are also the documents we will use during the course of the trial,” Poa told the media.

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Minutes before, House prosecution lead counsel Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro revealed that they requested the marking of common exhibits.

“The prosecution adopted many exhibits that the defense adopted, so we requested that there be marking of common exhibits, meaning one exhibit there that would be marked the same, but it was denied by the other party,” Luistro said.

She explained:  “So what’s gonna happen is, separate marking for the prosecution, separate marking for the defense, even if they pertain to the same document.”

Poa previously denied “adopting” exhibits of the prosecution, saying the two camps submitted their pre-trial briefs on the same day.

Still, Poa insisted that the defense and the prosecution are “working on it together” to expedite the pre-trial.

“We are trying to finish this pre-marking as soon as possible. So we’re working on it together. So, hopefully it will go well,” Poa shared.

Today marks the third day of the pretrial conference, but both sides believe the discussions may extend for another day due to the volume of documents being tackled. /das