Survey period didn't cover hearings on alleged unexplained wealth, says prosecutor

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The House prosecution panel has no reason to be demoralized amid the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showing that 35% of Filipinos are dissatisfied with the prosecution of the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte, House prosecution panel spokesperson Zia Adiong of Lanao del Sur said Thursday.

Adiong said that the said poll was conducted last Septmber 21 to 27, a period that did not cover the prosecution’s presentation of evidence of the Vice President’s financial records which seeks to prove Article 2 or the Vice President’s alleged accumulation of unexplained wealth due to undeclared assets and non-divestment in businesses as mandated by the Constitution.

“The survey is not supposed to demoralize the prosecution because our track is based on a constitutional premise: Accountability. We all saw how the trial went. The Vice President was given due process to explain herself,” Adiong said in a press conference.

“The prosecution’s focus is really to hold the Vice President to account based on constitutional duty. The survey is not for us and may speak of different things. It cannot be automatically translated into the prosecution doing not the right thing,” he added.

The impeachment case against the Vice President rests only on one: Article 2 which alleges unexplained wealth due to non-declaration of assets in the SALN and non-divestment of businesses despite Constitutional prohibition.

The House prosecution panel dropped three charges of impeachment including: Article 1 on confidential fund, Article 3 on bribery and Article 4 on grave threat to President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. and his family after lawyer and certified public accountant Alex Cabrera testified that the Vice President and her husband said recorded P817 million unexplained wealth at the minimum and P1.5 billion at the maximum.

Cabrera made the conclusion after reviewing the financial records of the Vice President and her husband which include: SALNs, bank transaction and bank deposit records, insurance payment records, income tax returns and corporate records of the busines interests of the Duterte-Carpio couple.

“What drives us to move forward is the constitutional duty of the prosecution to hold the Vice President to account,” Adiong said.

Likewise, Adiong said the same survey showing that 78% of respondents believes it is important for the Vice President to testify personally to address the allegations against her.

“There is a high percentage of the public who wants the Vice President to explain, and that speaks a lot on the a public clamor for an explanation directly from the Vice President,” Adiong said.

“That speaks about their belief that an irregularity happened and that is the most important thing that we need to focus on,” he added. —NB, GMA News