Law professor Dean Ralph Sarmiento declines to testify in Sara Duterte impeachment trial

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Law professor Dean Ralph Sarmiento has declined to testify as a witness for Vice President Sara Duterte's defense team in her impeachment trial.

In a video posted on Facebook, Sarmiento cited as reason the need to preserve his independence and impartiality as a constitutional law expert.

"I have decided to decline participation as a witness in the proceedings. This is a personal decision to preserve the independence of my constitutional law scholarship and the impartiality of my legal views and opinions," Sarmiento said in his post.

Sarmiento said he already communicated with Duterte's defense team to request the withdrawal of its subpoena request for his appearance before the Senate impeachment court.

If a subpoena has already been issued, he asked the defense team to seek its recall.

Sarmiento still thanked the defense team for recognizing the value of the constitutional and legal views he had shared on social media.

However, he pointed out that he had not anticipated that his opinions could potentially become part of the impeachment proceedings.

Duterte's defense team listed Sarmiento as its first witness in the unexplained wealth charges against the vice president.

On Wednesday, the defense team filed a request for a subpoena before the Senate impeachment court, with Sarmiento expected to take the witness stand on November 9.

Sarmiento is a professor of Political and Constitutional Law at the University of St. La Salle College of Law. He also previously served as the university's vice chancellor for administration.

He had earlier called for fairness in Duterte's impeachment trial following the prosecution's decision to drop three of the four charges against the vice president. —VAL, GMA News