VP Duterte camp taps legal academic to counter unexplained wealth charge

MANILA, Philippines – Vice President Sara Duterte’s defense lawyers will present a former law dean as its first witness to refute the prosecution’s claims that Duterte amassed unexplained wealth in office when her trial resumes next week.

Duterte’s defense team Fortun Narvasa & Salazar law firm informed the prosecution team on Wednesday it intends to call Ralph Sarmiento as its first witness, a former dean of the University of St. La Salle College of Law in Bacolod City.

READ: Sara Duterte camp: Prosecution evidence ‘inadmissible’ in Senate trial

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“Dean Sarmiento will testify on legal and constitutional principles relevant to this impeachment case and on Article II,” the defense’s three-page manifestation read.

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Sarmiento, a legal scholar who previously questioned the Senate impeachment court’s decision to amend its earlier ruling on the threshold for conviction, was formally requested to testify and present documentation verifying his credentials when proceedings resume on Nov. 9.

Duterte’s Senate trial will pick up next week in the wake of the prosecution’s decision to narrow its case, streamlining the charges to focus primarily on allegations that she accumulated unexplained wealth and failed to truthfully disclose her assets. 

Sarmiento had noted that Duterte’s defense counsel should’ve been granted even a limited window to refute the prosecution’s allegations concerning threats against President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., secret fund misuse and bribery, according to an Abogado report published in October. /jpv