MANILA, Philippines — House prosecutor Chel Diokno on Saturday said a video posted by Senator-Judge Pia Cayetano showing his exchange with Senator-Judge Alan Peter Cayetano over the subpoena for Vice President Sara Duterte’s bank records failed to present the full context of his remarks.
“With all due respect to the Senator-Judge, and so the public will not be misled, this is the context and the complete statement that I made,” Diokno said, before releasing the full portion of his response during the impeachment trial.
Diokno said the prosecution’s request for bank records could not be considered a “fishing expedition” because it was not made on mere speculation.
“A fishing expedition can be said to have happened only if the party requesting the evidence or documents is merely hoping to find something,” he said. “Let me clarify: We are not merely hoping. We found probable cause, or sufficient basis, in the records of the Anti-Money Laundering Council involving billions of pesos that passed through the accounts of the Vice President and her husband.”
He explained that the prosecution sought the bank records to determine whether they were consistent with the AMLC reports, emphasizing that such records could only be obtained through a court-issued subpoena. Diokno added that had the House obtained the records before the impeachment trial, it would have violated Vice President Duterte’s rights and due process.
“Now that there is a subpoena for the Vice President’s bank records, both sides can use them to prove their respective cases,” Diokno said. “In this way, the senator-judges can decide based on the entirety of the evidence.”
Akbayan Party-list, meanwhile, accused the Cayetano siblings of circulating a “spliced video” following the exchange during the trial. “A lawyer with a twisted argument clings to a spliced video. Because Akbayan Rep. Chel Diokno exposed the senator-judge siblings, they are now trying to twist the story,” the party said.
The party also criticized Pia Cayetano’s social media post, saying it was inappropriate for a senator-judge to publish content that it claimed echoed the defense’s narrative. “What’s even more disappointing is that this is the kind of content being posted by a senator-judge. It is right in line with Sara’s camp. Where do you find a judge trolling the prosecution online? So who is really being one-sided now?” it said.
