Prosecutor: 6-hour questioning of AMLC witness due to Defense's objections

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The direct examination of Anti-Money Laundering Council Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura took six hours on Monday due to numerous objections by the defense, House prosecutor Terry Ridon of Bicol Saro Party-list said on Tuesday.

Ridon was responding to defense counsel Sheila Sison’s manifestation before the Senate impeachment court that they should not be rushed in conducting their cross examination on Monday, October 5. The defense panel was eventually allowed by the impeachment court to continue today its cross examination on Tuesday.

“It won’t last for six hours if the defense is not objecting every hour. Most of the time, the defense has been objecting that entire time. It wasn't because we had so many questions. It was really because they kept on objecting on each question. That needs to be stated for the record,” he said ahead of the Day 34 of the impeachment trial of the Vice President.

“It is their right, but we have to say that the long hours was not just because we kept asking for questions,” he added.

Ridon said if the truth takes time, then the prosecution is all for it.

“The most important thing here is for the truth to come out. How long does it take for the truth to come up, for the nation to know what had happened on the finance of transactions of the vice president, the husband, and their firms, then we will take that long,” he said.

“But think of the figures as staggering: P4.4 billion in covered and suspicious transactions of the Duterte couple and P5 billion on Duterte-related firms. How can they have that much money,” Ridon added. —AOL, GMA News