The House prosecution team will proceed with Article 1 of the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte after her defense team rejected the proposed alternate presentation of evidence per article, Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian said on Wednesday.
Article 1 pertains to Duterte’s alleged misuse of P612 million in confidential funds under her office and when she was still secretary of the Department of Education.
‘The prosecution will proceed with Article I because we received a letter yesterday stating that the defense does not agree to change the flow of the impeachment trial. And since both parties must agree before the sequence of proceedings can be altered, we will continue with Article I,’ Gatchalian said in Filipino over DZMM.
The prosecution team, in a three-page manifestation on July 27, 2026, informed the impeachment court that it preferred an alternate presentation of evidence per article, which it believed would make the proceedings ‘more orderly, efficient, and focused.’
According to Gatchalian, both parties should agree to the proposal.
‘The impeachment court could decide the matter on its own, but we want both sides to agree. We want fairness and due process to prevail, and we want the impeachment trial to be conducted in an orderly manner,’ he explained in Filipino.
The same fairness and fair play were among the four grounds cited by the defense team in opposing the proposal, the Senate chief said.
Duterte’s lawyers also pointed out that the issue had already been discussed during the pre-trial, Gatchalian added, citing the defense team’s letter to the impeachment court.