VICE President Sara Duterte’s legal camp has hit back at the Senate impeachment court’s decision to allow the House prosecution team to drop three out of four impeachment charges against her, calling the move “completely unfair.”
During Tuesday’s proceedings, Presiding Officer Francis “Chiz” Escudero approved the prosecution’s request to withdraw Article I on alleged misused confidential funds, Article III on bribery, and Article IV on grave threats against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez.
This leaves only Article II, concerning alleged unexplained wealth and failure to declare assets, for the senator-judges to deliberate and vote on.
While Escudero ruled that Duterte no longer needs to present evidence or witnesses for the three dismissed articles—since they will not be put to a vote—he clarified that the withdrawal does not grant immunity or bar future legal proceedings.
Furthermore, Escudero lifted the sub judice rule on the dropped charges, allowing both the Vice President and her legal team to publicly discuss and respond to the evidence previously presented by the prosecution.
Lead defense counsel Sheila Sison strongly protested the decision, arguing that because prosecutors had already presented 14 witnesses to air allegations, blocking the defense from fully rebutting them inside the court bears the characteristics of a mistrial.
“They presented their evidence… but now, since they withdrew, your Vice President can no longer speak or defend herself from those allegations,” Sison stated, adding that the defense would not allow its rebuttal scope to be unilaterally dictated.
Several senator-judges also expressed reservations.
Senator Joel Villanueva noted that Duterte deserves an opportunity to speak on the abandoned articles, while Senator Alan Peter Cayetano questioned the timing of the withdrawal after substantial evidence had already been introduced.
Although the court maintains that Duterte can defend herself publicly outside the courtroom due to the lifting of media restrictions on those charges, her defense team remains critical, warning that shifting the rules mid-trial compromises the integrity of the constitutional process.