The Senate impeachment court on Wednesday accepted as fact the occurrence and regularity of the hearings of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability and the Committee on Justice on Vice President Sara Duterte’s confidential funds.
This means that the House prosecution panel will no longer need to prove that the hearings were ‘indeed conducted,’ and the official records produced during the proceedings will be presumed as properly and lawfully conducted, unless proven otherwise.
However, presiding officer Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero reminded that this ruling does not mean the court takes as fact the statements made in the hearing.
‘The court states with precision what the prosecution need not prove only with respect to those two things,’ Escudero began.
‘Nothing else is judicially admitted or established. The prosecution, therefore, expressly… reminded that judicial notice shall not be used as a vehicle to place into the record the substantive contents of the transcripts, recordings or committee report,’ he noted.
He continued: ‘It is not a substitute for the presentation and formal offer of competent evidence nor does it dispense with the applicable rules on authentication, hearsay, relevance and the right of respondent to object and confront the evidence presented against her.’
Escudero made the ruling following the judicial notice requested by the House prosecution panel on August 3