Sara Duterte prosecutors weigh dropping bribery article

MANILA, Philippines — House prosecutors have not made a final decision on whether to drop the bribery article against Vice President Sara Duterte as they consider ways to speed up her impeachment trial, private prosecutor Benjamin “Jay” Tolosa Jr. said Saturday.

Tolosa said prosecutors were reviewing the article alongside their remaining witnesses as part of efforts to finish the trial sooner and avoid extending the proceedings into next year.

“We always say that we don’t want this to extend into next year,” Tolosa said at the Saturday News Forum at Dapo Restaurant in Quezon City.

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Article III concerns alleged bribery involving Department of Education officials during Duterte’s term as education secretary. Prosecutors had publicly raised the possibility of dropping the article earlier in the week.

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Tolosa said prosecutors shared the desire expressed by members of the public and some senator-judges for a faster trial. The panel was reviewing the evidence that still needed to be presented and the number of witnesses necessary to establish its case.

He cited the prosecution’s presentation on grave threats, saying it stopped calling additional witnesses after determining that the evidence it sought to establish had already been presented.

“There were so many witnesses whom we no longer called,” Tolosa said. “When we felt that we were able to meet them already, we stopped there.”

Tolosa said prosecutors had planned to take the same approach when they began presenting evidence concerning confidential funds by reducing the number of witnesses once the necessary testimony had been given.

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“And we said from the very start of this discussion on confidential funds that we also wanted, as much as possible, to considerably trim down our witness list,” he said.

The review of Article III is part of that effort, Tolosa said. Prosecutors were considering whether foregoing the presentation of evidence on the article could help shorten the trial.

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His remarks followed lead prosecutor Gerville Luistro’s Sept. 3 statement that the panel was reviewing the bribery article and its remaining witnesses, with no final decision yet on dropping the article.

Tolosa said there was precedent for narrowing an impeachment case, citing the 2012 trial of the late Chief Justice Renato Corona, when prosecutors withdrew five of the eight impeachment articles.

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“But again, just to be clear, there is no final decision yet on that,” Tolosa said.