The House prosecution panel has criticized the pre-trial brief submitted by Vice President Sara Z. Duterte’s defense team, saying it is extensive in length but lacking in direct responses to the allegations set to be tackled in the impeachment trial.
House trial spokesperson and Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong said the 72-page filing, which reportedly includes more than 100 witnesses and hundreds of documentary exhibits, fails to clearly address the core accusations laid out in the Articles of Impeachment.
“After reviewing the defense pre-trial brief, one cannot help but notice that it is long on pages but short on answers,” Rep. Adiong said, adding that the central question remains unanswered: where the direct and clear rebuttal of the allegations can be found.
He stressed that the issue is not the volume of the filing, but its apparent lack of a focused factual defense.
“The measure of a defense is not the number of pages, witnesses, or documents, but whether it directly responds to the allegations. On that basis, the filing raises more questions than it answers,” he said.
Rep. Adiong also noted that many of the listed witnesses and documents appear broadly described and overlap with materials already identified by the prosecution.
He explained that a pre-trial brief is intended to help the impeachment court define issues, narrow evidence, and identify material witnesses, but said the defense submission falls short of that function.
Despite the criticism, he emphasized that Vice President Duterte retains full constitutional rights to present her defense before the impeachment court.
“The Vice President has every right to present evidence, call witnesses, and defend herself. We fully respect that, and we want the process to proceed so that the Filipino people can have clarity,” he said.
Rep. Adiong added that the filing ultimately reinforces the necessity of proceeding with a full impeachment trial, saying it underscores why the Senate must hear and evaluate the evidence in its entirety.