By Ade S. Fajardo
The impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte is off to a slow start as the defense is throwing objections left and right, stalling the testimony of an agent of the National Bureau of Investigation.
It took two trial days to finish the story of the agent whose main business was to identify the video where the VP is seen spewing expletives at the chief executive, the first lady and the former speaker of the House of Representatives.
The general public is puzzled at the amount of time devoted to tussling over a video that they have already watched several times over.
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Testimony in narrative form is not allowed in ordinary court trials. Oral evidence is elicited by fielding answers to truncated questions on direct testimony.
The objective is to allow the opposing side to object to answers that may not be within the personal knowledge of the witness, etc.
This is most likely the reason why the Senate majority elected a lawyer to preside over the impeachment trial of the VP.
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Senator Chiz Ezcudero has been a competent presiding officer, as is apparently the general impression among lawyers following the proceedings.
There is a downside to this, however. There is that danger of defaulting into a lawyer’s mindset that tolerates too much legal jargon being thrown around and ensnaring the trial in a maze of technicalities that can make non-lawyers fall asleep.
An impeachment trial is a people’s trial. In fact, there are more non-lawyer senators than those with long years of formal legal training.
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There is no vested right to public office. Especially an elective one such as the office of the vice president.
It continues to be a privilege contingent on the continuing trust and confidence of the people — the end of which may be expressed through the Senate acting as an impeachment court.
VP Sara, a lawyer, will not be deprived of livelihood in case she is booted out via a judgment of conviction.
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Technical rules of evidence that are applied in court proceedings must not defeat the people’s right to know the details behind the articles of impeachment.
The defense may be succeeding in framing the trial as a technical game that is hard to follow. The people can zoom out. The VP’s survey numbers will not hurtle down in a spiral.
But one must reflect back on the basic premise that impeachment is largely a political process decided by a small group of people who are not necessarily lawyers.
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Strictly speaking, senator-judges can exercise judgment based on evidence that may not be entertained in an ordinary trial court.
As human beings they can discern which people are telling the truth in the witness stand.
A judgment of conviction or acquittal rendered by the Senate acting as an impeachment court is final and cannot be appealed to any judicial body. Technical rules will not truly matter in the end./WDJ