MANILA, Philippines — The public prosecutors in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte have asked the Senate Impeachment Court to adopt additional measures as the marking of evidence continues in the pre-trial proceedings, noting the "voluminous" documents that are still being processed by both the prosecution and the defense.
During a press briefing at the House of Representatives on Tuesday, House lead prosecutor and Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro said that their team is seeking additional exhibit-marking teams and extra working days to review the "thousands" of documents linked to the confidential funds of the Vice President.
“I wish to share that indeed, the documents for confidential fund is really voluminous. As a matter of fact, the prosecutors have expressed their uncertainties as to whether the marking will be finished by Thursday,” Luistro said.
Luistro said that they have proposed to Senate Secretary Renato Bantug, through House Secretary-General Cheloy Garafil, to extend the marking of exhibits to Friday and Saturday, as well as increasing the number of marking teams from four to as many as eight.
She said that the evidence for marking include 1,900 documents evidencing payment (DEP) from the Department of Education, and 2,000 DEPs from the Office of the Vice President.
Despite this, both Luistro and Manila Rep. Joel Chua said that they are confident that the main trial would begin on July 6, as long as the pre-trial order to be issued before that day.
