MANILA: The Palace on Sunday (Oct 4) said dropping the bribery charge in Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial could deprive Filipinos of the chance to know the “whole truth.”
“If they withdraw the bribery allegation against the vice president, wouldn’t that shortchange or disadvantage Filipinos who want to know the whole truth about this?” Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said in a message to reporters.
While Castro respects the prosecution panel’s decision, she questioned what prompted it to give up the charge.
“It is up to the prosecution to decide. If they think that is the right strategy in presenting their witnesses,” Castro said.
“But they included it in the Articles of Impeachment, which means they have sufficient evidence to discuss this bribery issue in the impeachment court,” she added.
Castro’s comment was in response to a statement by Manila Rep. Joel Chua, one of the members of the House of Representatives prosecution team, confirming that they would no longer pursue the bribery charge against Duterte in her ongoing impeachment trial.
Chua said the decision to abandon the article of impeachment was not due to the case’s weakness.
“We believe that the evidence presented is already sufficient,” he said.
Last September, House prosecutors said they were weighing whether to pursue Article III of the impeachment complaint, which accuses Duterte of bribing Department of Education officials to induce them to violate or circumvent procurement and other related laws during her tenure as education secretary. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
