Presiding Officer Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero suspended the morning session of the impeachment trial on Thursday to give the prosecution time to decide if another counsel will handle the presentation of its Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) witness following the absence of private prosecutor Erwin Matib due to illness.
Escudero ruled on a motion from Senator-Judge Vicente Sotto III allowing the prosecution panel to determine whether to proceed with an alternate lawyer during the afternoon session.
“If Attorney Erwin (Matib) is not available and you do not wish to present the witness using another counsel, then we will call it (a day). As I said, huwag niyo akong hamunin, an early day for today. And we will hopefully be able to present the BIR witness tomorrow (Friday, Oct. 9) with or without Attorney Erwin as the first witness, thereafter, attorney Cabrera and your other witnesses thereafter kung aabot,” Escudero said.
Prior to the suspension, Senator-Judge Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino suggested pausing the trial to allow the Senate to conduct its plenary business while giving the prosecution time to prepare a replacement prosecutor.
“That gives the prosecution an hour and a half to prepare and they can have another lawyer do the direct examination for the BIR witness. I think that would be fair for everybody, Mr. Presiding Officer,” Aquino said.
Senate-Judge Erwin Tulfo argued that the prosecution panel possesses sufficient legal talent to substitute for Matib and continue presenting witnesses without delay.
“I mean tama naman po yung sinasabi ng defense na napakarami mga prosecutors po dito na, hindi po ba pwede porke’t absent yung isa hindi na pwede yung iba? Lahat naman ng mga ito nakikita ko magagaling. Tingin ko mga de campanilla itong ga abogado natin sa prosecution and I think they can handle the job,” Tulfo said.