A question on whether Vice President Sara Duterte’s alleged threats against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. constitute an impeachable offense prompted a tense exchange in the Senate impeachment court on Tuesday, July 7, after senator-judges called out a private prosecutor for delivering what they described as a “premature” closing statement.
The exchange began after Senator-Judge Risa Hontiveros asked private prosecutor Amando Virgil Ligutan to explain why Duterte’s alleged remarks against the President amount to an impeachable offense.
Earlier, the prosecution presented National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Senior Agent John Mark Calilung as its first witness. Calilung read into the record Duterte’s Oct. 18, 2024, statement describing her relationship with President Marcos as already “toxic,” during which she spoke of imagining the President’s “beheading” and exhuming the remains of former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. to throw them into the West Philippine Sea.
The prosecution also played a portion of Duterte’s more than two-hour online press conference on Nov. 23, 2024, in which she said she had supposedly instructed someone to kill President Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez if she herself were killed first.
Responding to Hontiveros’ question, Ligutan argued that Duterte’s remarks amounted to a betrayal of public trust.
“Even without going into a question: ‘Is that a criminal act?’ That act, 110% sure, betrayed the public trust that the Vice President got in the previous elections,” Ligutan said.
Impeachment Court Presiding Officer Francis “Chiz” Escudero immediately intervened, saying the prosecutor’s response had already ventured into conclusions of fact and law that should be addressed only after the presentation of evidence.
“Statements were made by the counsel of the prosecutor that are conclusions of fact and law already, which should be taken upon advisement of the Impeachment Court,” Escudero said.
Escudero then allowed Duterte’s defense team to respond to the question, giving it the same amount of time allotted to the prosecution.
Senator-judge Pia Cayetano likewise objected, saying Ligutan had already delivered “a closing statement.”
“Because it is not right. We must follow the rules, and I know you are being courteous to all of us, but that was a closing statement,” Cayetano said.
“Do not take advantage of the generosity of this impeachment court,” she added.
Cayetano then moved to strike Ligutan’s remarks from the record, but Escudero deferred action on the motion.
Hontiveros later clarified that her question was intended to establish the materiality of the evidence to the Articles of Impeachment, noting that the prosecution had not claimed Duterte actually hired an assassin. She said it was never her intention to elicit a closing argument from the prosecution.*
Reymund Titong is a Filipino journalist steadily building his voice in the field of news reporting, driven by a commitment to tell meaningful and relevant stories.
He serves as a correspondent for Rappler, contributes to Negros Daily Bulletin, and maintains a blog on Medium.