Prosecutors Forgo Plan To Call Sara Duterte As Witness
“From what we heard from the defense,” what Vice President Sara Duterte “is going to say is that she knows nothing,” private prosecutor Lorna Kapunan said.
The prosecution team of the House of Representatives has decided to forego its plan to call Vice President Sara Duterte as a hostile witness at her impeachment trial, saying pressing her into taking the witness stand would only be an exercise in futility.
“We will no longer call the VP. From what we heard from the defense, what she is going to say is that she knows nothing – that’s all she is going to say in the witness stand,” private prosecutor Lorna Kapunan told reporters in a chance interview on the sidelines of the impeachment hearing on Monday, Oct. 12.
“Then it’s not going to enlighten us, the senator-judges nor the public about her accountability for public funds, her accountability for unexplained wealth, her grave threats to the President, First Lady and (former) speaker and so on,” she explained.
“If that’s all she will say that she knows nothing, then it will only be useless,” Kapunan maintained.
“Just a warning to the defense: please, if you want to present the VP, please do so because I’m just dying to cross examine her. I will volunteer, I may not be the one (assigned to handle the case), but I certainly will volunteer,” she added.
But Kapunan emphasized that she and her colleagues in the prosecution would understand if the defense would be averse to letting her face the impeachment court as such would be risky and might even backfire.
“I think it would behoove the defense panel not to present the VP, because it would be good for the prosecution if they call the VP. Makikita natin ang init ng ulo niya, makikita natin ang pagka lutang niya (We will see her bad temper, her being dense),” she said.
She recalled that in the impeachment trial of the late chief justice Renato Corona in 2012, the latter blew his top during the hearing, prompting then Senate president and presiding officer Juan Ponce Enrile to put the entire Senate building on a lockdown to prevent a walkout.
“Remember the impeachment trial of CJ Corona? He was advised against taking the stand. He felt he was wronged and he showed it,” Kapunan said.
“I don’t think we are faltering,” Rep. Terry Ridon, one of the public prosecutors, said, denying insinuations that Duterte’s presence would complicate the prosecution’s position.
“We don’t need to call the VP. The documents are actually speaking for themselves. So, we don’t need a witness to speak on a document. We don’t need her as part of our evidence,” he said. – With Bella Cariaso
