Sen. Robinhood Padilla clarified that his call for prosecutors not to be ‘one-sided’ was a call for fairness, particularly in allowing senator-judges facing cases but not convicted to participate in Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial.
He explained that his remark stemmed from a discussion on whether a previous conviction automatically disqualifies a witness from testifying, which he then related to the possibility of allowing senators facing cases to participate in the Duterte trial.
‘That was my point when I said not to be one-sided. This is not about favoring a witness or a senator-judge. What I am calling for is fairness,’ Padilla said in Filipino in a statement released Wednesday night.
During Wednesday’s proceedings, Padilla asked the prosecution whether a person convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude could still serve as a witness.
He also asked the prosecution to avoid presenting witnesses with perjury cases, such as National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Regional Director Jeremy Lotoc and Senior Agent John Mark Calilung.
Rep. Gerville Luistro, the lead prosecutor, replied that they were able to verify that there are no pending cases against their witnesses, and a previous conviction is not a ground for disqualifying a witness, to which Padilla replied in Filipino: ‘You know, your answer was very good. I hope our prosecution will not be one-sided.’
Padilla’s remark drew criticism and prompted Luistro to explain in a press conference after the trial on Wednesday that the impeachment proceedings are adversarial in nature, so the prosecution is expected to establish its case while the defense is tasked with defending the respondent.
Padilla then wrote in Filipino in a Facebook post on Thursday that ‘the prosecution’s role is not to win, but to pursue the truth and protect the innocent.’
In his statement on Wednesday, Padilla cited a previous interview in which Rep. Leila de Lima, a House prosecutor, discussed the possible application of the principle in Avelino v. Cuenco in determining the Senate’s ‘functional base’ for computing the two-thirds vote required for conviction.
Padilla quoted de Lima as saying, ‘Why include in the number… the senator-judges who don’t function because they are not present?’
According to him, de Lima explained that the two-thirds conviction threshold would change from 16 to 15 or 14 votes since not all 24 senator-judges are present and part of the ‘functional base.’
Padilla clarified that he was not saying that the same legal rules should apply to witnesses and senator-judges, but maintained his call for ‘fairness.’
‘If a witness is not automatically disqualified despite having a conviction, why is the possibility being discussed that senator-judges who have cases but have not been convicted may be unable to participate and eventually be excluded from the functional base?’ he said in Filipino.
Sens. Rodante Marcoleta and Jinggoy Estrada are both detained after being separately arrested on plunder charges. Another ally, Sen. Ronald ‘Bato’ dela Rosa, remains in hiding over an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in connection with the case alleging former President Rodrigo Duterte’s crimes against humanity.
All three have so far been unable to participate in the impeachment trial against the vice president.
Padilla, a self-proclaimed ally of the Duterte family, maintained that all available legal and procedural avenues should first be exhausted to allow senator-judges to participate before considering their exclusion from the conviction threshold.
‘If court permission is needed, then let us seek it. If the Senate needs to deliberate on it, then let us deliberate. But before discussing who should be excluded from the count, let us first exhaust all legal means to give everyone the opportunity to perform their duty,’ Padilla said in Filipino.
Meanwhile, presiding officer Sen. Francis Escudero previously ruled that 16 votes remain the threshold for conviction, with the two-thirds computed based on all 24 members of the Senate, regardless of who is physically present