Ligutan notes Acosta’s ease answering in Filipino with Duterte lawyers

MANILA, Philippines — Private prosecutor Amando Ligutan noted Monday former Office of the Vice President (OVP) special disbursing officer (SDO) Gina Acosta’s apparent ease in answering in Filipino during the defense panel’s questioning in Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial.

Ligutan made the observation during redirect examination following the cross-examination by Duterte’s defense team.

“For two days, you were having a hard time answering my questions because you said you didn’t understand Tagalog very well… That’s why we had to go through the trouble of trying to interpret into Bisaya, Tagalog, and English,” Ligutan said.

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“But when it was the defense asking you, the answer was rapid… fast Tagalog; all of a sudden you answered without translation,” he added.

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Acosta defended herself.

“I did ask Atty. (Lindon Miguel Bacquel)… I asked the attorney to repeat it if I didn’t understand the question, if I didn’t understand,” she said, mostly in Bisaya.

During the cross-examination, defense counsel Lindon Miguel Bacquel asked mostly yes-or-no questions, with Acosta asking for clarification exactly six times in more or less 30 minutes.

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Ligutan said, “I will not be labored to a point. The records are crystal clear.”

Bacquel then moved to have Ligutan’s statement stricken from the record, but the motion was denied by Senate Impeachment Court Presiding Officer Sen. Francis Escudero.

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Tackling a different topic minutes later, Acosta asked Ligutan to repeat his question, saying she was confused.

To this, the lawyer said the request for repetition was exactly his point.

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During the defense’s recross-examination, Bacquel highlighted that Acosta was allowed to speak in Bisaya, with the promise that she would try her best to speak in Filipino or English. /mcm