The House lead prosecutor in the Vice President Sara Duterte impeachment trial said the defense panel contributed to the extended pre-trial proceedings after opting to use a separate set of markings for documentary exhibits.
House lead prosecutor and Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro made the statement following the completion of the Senate impeachment court’s pre-trial conference, which formally concluded after the marking of thousands of documentary exhibits ahead of the July 6 trial schedule.
She said the prosecution had proposed using “common exhibits” for documents that were identical for both sides to streamline the process, but the defense insisted on maintaining its own set of marked copies.
“We put on record our observation about the common exhibits that in spite of the willingness of the prosecution that we share the marking in the same exhibit… the defense maintained their position to put their marking on a separate set of documents,” Luistro said.
According to the Batangas solon, the decision resulted in duplication of effort as the same documents had to be processed twice during pre-marking.
“If you can imagine, we’re talking about the same documents, pero iba ang marking… so nagiging times two ’yung dedicated na time,” she added.
She noted that the volume of evidence—running into thousands of documents—made the additional process significantly time-consuming.
Luistro said the prosecution formally placed its observations on record before the impeachment court but respected the defense’s procedural discretion in handling its evidence.
Despite the procedural differences, she said both sides were able to complete the marking of exhibits covering key allegations, including the alleged misuse of confidential funds and unexplained wealth.
The Senate impeachment court has since terminated the pre-trial phase and is expected to issue its pre-trial order before the start of the full trial next month.