With people bored out of their skulls and tuning out of the impeachment trial, even some non-DDS folks are thinking that there won’t be enough public pressure on some of the known pro-Duterte senators to consider the evidence and make the 16 votes needed to convict possible.
Surveys have shown that Vice President Sara Duterte isn’t Teflon-coated against the stain of corruption. Her ratings plunged during the congressional probes on her confidential funds, and fell again in the first survey conducted by OCTA Research after the start of her impeachment trial.
The tediousness of the trial is expected to be broken once new details emerge, especially on the accusations of unexplained wealth – but this part is scheduled still at the end of August. Regaining public attention should happen much earlier.
President Marcos has given the green light for the opening of the tax records of the VP and her husband Manases Carpio. Legal and tax experts have said a president’s approval is needed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue to submit tax records for public disclosure in a judicial or impeachment trial. The BIR forwarded the documents to the Senate yesterday after securing BBM’s approval.
Considering the strenuous opposition of the VP’s camp to the opening of the tax records, the inevitable speculation is that she and her husband have incriminating records that they want to keep hidden.
Also new, and awaited by the public, are the detailed financial records of the Duterte-Carpio couple totaling P6.77 billion from 2006 to 2025, which were investigated by the Anti-Money Laundering Council. The AMLC had reported 630 covered and 33 suspicious transactions of the couple.
So perhaps the next hearings will no longer be sleep-inducing.
Watching the impeachment trial on Wednesday was in fact no longer as tedious as in the first three weeks.
Perhaps this was because of the topic that never fails to draw attention: ginormous amounts of cash. In this case, P125 million withdrawn in one go from just one bank branch, bundled into 125 packs of P1 million each and stuffed into three or four gym bags (must’ve been triple extra-large) and hauled out using trolleys through the Landbank back area to the vehicles of the Office of the Vice President.
In all, P612.5 million in cash was reportedly withdrawn by the OVP and the Department of Education when it was headed by VP Sara.
The former Landbank branch manager said that while the P125-million cash withdrawal was ‘unusual,’ it was not ‘suspicious’ because the OVP coordinator for the transaction was known to the bank and regularity was presumed.
Presiding officer Francis Escudero cut through the tiresome questioning of House prosecutor Joel Chua. Several times, I thought I detected exasperation in the Landbank department manager Chua was questioning; at certain points, she seemed to want to say, ‘duh.’ Or maybe it was just my exasperated mind imagining it.
Some of the answers were self-evident. Several times, she started her reply with, ‘As I have already said…’ But no one interjected with the previous weeks’ ‘asked and answered.’ Maybe everyone was looking forward to lunch.
Escudero tried to speed up even the lunch break, proposing just 30 minutes, and then relenting to his colleagues’ request for 45 minutes.
If the prosecutors want to maintain public interest in this trial, they should cut the legal gobbledygook. Why keep prolonging every question, for example, with ‘kung alam mo (if you know)’? If a witness doesn’t know the answer, or has no knowledge of the information being asked, the witness will say so.
Keeping the public interested is important to assist the senator-judges in what would ultimately boil down to a conscience vote on the fitness of Sara Duterte to hold public office.
The topic at least is becoming interesting. When the trial resumes next week, the public may finally get to find out whether certain recipients of the confidential funds of the OVP and DepEd, notably ‘Mary Grace Piattos,’ are real people or ghosts.
The sideshows to the trial are becoming equally interesting, as Senators Panfilo Lacson and Alan Peter Cayetano go after each other’s throat while BBM’s non-sister Sen. Imee Marcos and Palace press officer Claire Castro engage in a catfight (or impakta fight).
Prosecutors should be mindful that they are selling their case not only to an impeachment court where the VP at this point is deemed to have the numbers for her acquittal, but more importantly to the public.
Senators may be independent republics, but with a national constituency, they are more vulnerable to public opinion than congressmen who answer mainly to much smaller legislative districts.
A dull, protracted trial that turns off the public works in favor of the VP.
The importance of keeping the public interested in the impeachment trial can’t be emphasized enough. The onus falls chiefly on the prosecution.