The House prosecution panel informed the Senate impeachment court that it is dropping three of the four charges against Vice President Sara Duterte, leaving only the allegation of unexplained wealth.
Lead Prosecutor Rep. Gerville Luistro announced the strategic shift at the start of Tuesday’s proceedings, which marked the final session before the trial pauses for deliberations on the proposed 2027 national budget.
“Today, the prosecution respectfully manifests that it will no longer pursue three of them,” Luistro stated, confirming that allegations regarding grave threats, misuse of confidential funds, and bribery would no longer be pursued.
Luistro asserted that the panel believes Article II possesses substantial and compelling evidence on its own to warrant the Vice President’s removal from office for constitutional violations and betrayal of public trust.
She added that streamlining the trial down to a single article would ultimately benefit the Senate, the respondent, and the general public. However, lead defense counsel Sheila Sison opposed the move, arguing that dropping the charges after presenting evidence denies the respondent a fair chance to refute the claims.
“The prosecution would thus retain the benefit of having its evidence heard while the respondent would be at risk of being denied the benefit of having that evidence contradicted, and we feel and believe that this is not fairness,” Sison argued before the tribunal.
Presiding Officer Sen. Francis Escudero ruled that the manifestation will be treated as a motion subject to the court’s approval before the trial resumes in November for the presentation of defense evidence.
