House prosecutor Terry Ridon on Monday asked the Senate impeachment court to strike from the record two statements made by the defense during the 27th day of Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial.
Ridon sought to remove the defense’s remarks that a “quick perusal” of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) summary showed “some misrepresentation” and that its presentation was “an attempt” to “condition the minds of the public” over the figures.
Ridon argued that the statements should not remain on record, particularly because the document being discussed was an actual submission to the impeachment court. He also noted that the prosecution had already complied with the call to remove what was described as a potentially misleading heading from the document.
Defense counsel Atty. Sheila Sison opposed Ridon’s request, calling it “futile and meaningless” because the statements were made in support of an objection previously raised by defense lawyer Justin Nicol Gular.
“Well, frankly, Your Honor, we think that this request to have those two statements stricken from the record is actually futile and meaningless considering that those two statements were made in support of the objection offered by the counsel for the respondent earlier,” Sison said.
Sison argued that if the prosecution’s intention was only to present the documents and the information they contained, it could have relied on the certified true copies brought to the court by SEC witness Gerardo Del Rosario.
“Now, if truly the intention of the prosecution is just to present the documents and the data and information containing those documents, then the simple solution to their problem would have been to just simply refer to the certified true copies of the documents brought today by the witness, Your Honor,” she added.
Presiding Officer Francis Escudero said he would defer his ruling until he had reviewed the relevant portion of the transcript of stenographic notes (TSN).
“We will make a ruling later on before we adjourn today's trial,” Escudero said, directing the Clerk of Court to provide him with a copy of the relevant TSN.
The dispute arose during the prosecution’s presentation of SEC records concerning Duterte’s alleged business interests under Article II of the impeachment case.
