The Vice President herself even made a brief appearance inside the Senate building.
On Tuesday, July 7, the Impeachment Trial of Vice President Sara Duterte resumed with the Prosecution Panel, led by the members of the House of Representatives and its counsel composed of private lawyers, presenting the first witness of the trial.
John Mark Calilung, a senior agent of the Natiomal Bureau of Investigation (NBI) was called onto the witness stand, to answer matters in relation to the first few pieces of evidence in the case that are under the Article IV of the Articles of Impeachment submitted by the House of Representatives.
In which, the alleged threat of the Vice President against President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez was the highlight.
Specifically, her live streamed online press conference on November 23, 2024, where she uttered the following words.
“May kinausap na ako na tao. Sinabi ko sa kaniya na kapag pinatay ako, patayin mo si BBM, si Liza Araneta at si Martin Romualdez. No joke. Nagbilin na ako. Pag namatay ako, sabi ko, ‘wag ka tumigil hanggang hindi mo mapatay sila and then he said ‘yes.’”
The line of questioning, which was led by Prosecutor Atty. Amando Ligutan, on Calilung first revolved around on his background to establish his credibility, which include being the agent assigned to investigate the Duterte’s online conference.
Also tackled were other pieces of evidence submitted before the Impeachment Court, such as other clips of Duterte making other remarks against the President, Marcos’ response video, and more.
But key moments during the second day were the repeated objections made by the Defense counsel, which was the led by Atty. Carlo Narvasa.
They first contested the witness and asked the court ro disqualify him for not being part of the Zaballa et al. complaint. That motion was overruled by Presiding Judge Senator Francis Escudero.
They would later fire more objections in the succeeding phases of the trial day, ranging from Calilung’s knowledge on the preservation of the evidence by Meta, which owns Facebook, as well as looking for the certification of documents, and even the length of the video that will be played during the session.
All of which were overruled by Escudero.
The second day concluded at around 6:23 pm, more than four hours after it commenced at 2:00 pm, with the third day set to revolve around the cross-examination of Calilung by the Defense Panel tomorrow, July 8.
SARA’S SURPRISE VISIT
Meanwhile, prior to the start of the session, Vice President Sara Duterte made a surprise visit to the Senate Building, where she met with her Defense team inside the Tañada Conference Room, which lasted for about an hour.
Before leaving the premises, she gave a short message to the members of the press and said: “In this bloodbath and bludgeoning, I will be bloodied but unbowed.”
It is a nod to the line from William Ernest Henley’s Invictus, where he wrote the words: “My head is bloody, but unbowed.”
