Villanueva fires back at Panelo: ‘Did you want me to throw a fit?’

MANILA, Philippines — Senate deputy majority leader Sen. Joel Villanueva on Wednesday asked Vice President Sara Duterte’s spokesperson Atty. Paolo Panelo if he should have thrown a fit over the prosecution’s move to drop three of the four articles of impeachment against Duterte.

Panelo, in a statement, questioned the “lack of outrage” of the Senate majority for the time and money supposedly wasted from the prosecution’s presentation that will no longer be accounted for in the Senate impeachment court’s final verdict.

“What does he want me to do? Magwala ako? Na i-feel ko ako ang pinaparinggan? I don’t think so. We are a court,” Villanueva said in an interview.

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(What does he want me to do? Throw a fit? Make me feel like I’m being thrown shade at? I don’t think so. We are a court.)

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He also emphasized that during the trial proceedings, he had been careful and made sure his line of questioning was fair.

READ: Duterte camp hits prosecution, Senate majority over dropped articles

Sen. Kiko Pangilinan, also a member of the majority, said in a social media post that courts respond through rulings.

“Since when did our courts ever express outrage over motions and manifestations of counsels? Every lawyer knows that a court expresses itself through its rulings,” Pangilinan wrote.

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Senior deputy majority leader JV Ejercito also rejected Panelo’s claim that the senator-judges had been “quiet” after the articles were dropped.

“I think may mga nagsalita naman, hindi naman siguro totoo yung ganon,” he began.

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(I think there were some who spoke, so I don’t think that’s true.”

Ejercito added: “We put our trust sa presiding officer na siya ang napili namin. So siguro mas alam naman po niya at diskarte na po niya, pati ng buong legal team na nakasuporta sa kaniya sa impeachment court, ang kanilang ginagawa.”

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(We put our trust in the presiding officer whom we chose. So he probably knows better, and that is what he and the entire legal team supporting him in the impeachment court are doing.) /mr