House prosecutors have asked the Senate impeachment court to adopt additional measures to accelerate exhibit marking as they race to complete thousands of documentary evidence ahead of the July 6 impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Z. Duterte.
Lead prosecutor Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro said the prosecution panel is seeking additional marking teams and extended working days due to the volume of records, largely tied to alleged confidential fund disbursements.
“The documents for confidential fund are really voluminous,” Luistro said, noting uncertainty over whether the marking process could be completed within the current timeline.
The House prosecution team and the defense have so far completed three rounds of exhibit marking, following pre-trial sessions on June 18 and June 22. The pre-trial conference is set to conclude on June 25, ahead of the trial’s scheduled start.
Luistro said the panel has coordinated with Senate Secretary Renato Bantug through House Secretary General Cheloy Garafil to request procedural adjustments to speed up proceedings.
Among the proposals are expanding marking teams from four to as many as eight, and extending sessions to Friday and Saturday to meet the deadline.
House prosecutor Manila Rep. Joel Chua said the workload has significantly increased due to the sheer volume of evidence.
“Doon pa lamang sa confidential fund, more or less we are talking of 4,000 documents to be marked,” he said, referring to roughly 1,900 Documents Evidencing Payment from the Department of Education and more than 2,000 from the Office of the Vice President.
Prosecutors noted that the process has been further slowed after the defense opted to mark its own copies of documents instead of adopting common exhibit markings.