Senator-judge Alan Peter Cayetano on Monday objected to the prosecution team’s request to move up the testimony of National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Melvin Matibag in the impeachment trial, saying a government official should not dictate the schedule of the Senate sitting as an impeachment court.
The prosecution sought to have Matibag take the witness stand on Tuesday, July 14, instead of Wednesday, July 15, after the NBI chief requested an earlier schedule due to his planned attendance at a regional summit on scam centers and transnational organized crime in Thailand.
However, Cayetano, Senate President Win Gatchalian, and the defense panel opposed the request, citing concerns over fairness and the time already spent by senator-judges preparing for the witnesses scheduled for the week.
“I find it in bad taste that a bureau head will dictate to us that he’s not available next week,” Cayetano said during Monday’s proceedings.
Cayetano said members of the Senate have set aside other official duties, including local and foreign engagements, to attend the impeachment proceedings.
“We will be here 30 weeks. We have put aside many, many important things. We have put aside many foreign trips, many local trips… because we have to be here 2 o’clock until matapos tayo (until we finish),” he said.
The senator-judge added that government agencies have deputy officials who could represent their offices when needed.
“I was Secretary of Foreign Affairs. That’s why you have undersecretaries. That’s why you have deputy directors,” Cayetano said.
He warned that granting the request could set a precedent where witnesses could influence the court’s schedule based on their availability.
“I don’t want later on to say na dapat natanong ko muna ito sa unang witness, kaya lang si Director Matibag inuna dahil ganito o ganyan,” he said.
The prosecution, led by Representative Lorenz Defensor, explained that they were only moving Matibag’s testimony one day earlier and were not changing the overall schedule of witnesses.
“We will simply advance it one day,” Defensor said, adding that Matibag had been subpoenaed to testify within the week.
Defensor earlier informed the court that Matibag sent a letter dated July 10 requesting that his testimony be scheduled at the earliest possible date because the NBI had been invited by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Royal Thai Police to attend the regional summit on scam center compounds and transnational organized crime.
Presiding Officer Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero, however, pointed out that Matibag was not part of the original list of witnesses scheduled from Monday to Wednesday and that no subpoena had yet been issued for him to appear this week.
“Given the one witness per day rule that we supposedly have under the rules of court, no subpoena has yet been issued to Director Matibag to appear this week,” Escudero said.
Escudero also noted that Defensor had earlier identified the witnesses for the week as Atty. Jeremy Lotoc, Office of the Vice President, Chief of Staff Atty. Zuleika Lopez and Captain Belinda Bello.
As of writing, the impeachment court has begun hearing the testimony of Lotoc, the second witness presented by the House prosecution team in the case against Vice President Sara Duterte.
