Two lawmakers assigned to prosecute Vice President Sara Duterte said Tuesday, Feb. 11, that they will not rush the Senate to begin its impeachment trial even though President Marcos and Senate President Francis "Chiz" Escudero are already passing to each other the call to start the hearing.

1-Rider Party-list Rep. Rodge Gutierrez, one of the 11 congressmen-prosecutors in the case, said that the House leaves it to the senator-judges "on how they see fit to convene the impeachment court".

"We will not make any calls for the Senate to rush this, so that we do, we would want to avoid any tainting of partiality, tainting of bias," Gutierrez said in a press conference.

Quezon City 3rd district Rep. Lorenz Defensor, another prosecutor, echoed Gutierrez' pronouncement.

"We will respect the Senate as to when and how they will proceed with the impeachment process. We also want the public to see a fair and transparent impeachment trial," Defensor said in a text message to reporters.

Marcos recently said that he would be leaving it to Congress, "specifically the Senate, to exercise their own wisdom" in handling Duterte's case.

Meanwhile, Escudero said the Senate may likely start the Vice President's trial after Marcos' State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 21 as the President has not requested Congress to convene for a special session.

"Ayaw po naming mamis-interpret (We don't wanna be misinterpreted) as trying to unduly interfere, or influence yung yet -to -be -convened impeachment court," Gutierrez said.

"Kailangan pong maintindihan (We need to understand that) we will be advocates po in that court, and of course anything that we might say or do might be tainted with bias, so we'd rather it not come from us," he added.

But for House Assistant Majority Leader and Taguig City Rep. Pammy Zamora, the Senate should have adjourned on Feb. 7 and not on Feb. 5 based on its supposed calendar session.

"Base sa schedule sa napagkasunduang calendar of session ng 3rd Regular Session, ang pag-resume ng session ang nagsimula nung Jan. 13, 2025 at nagtatapos ng Feb. 7, 2025 (Based sa schedule of the supposed 3rd Regular Session, session resumed on Jan. 13, 2025 and must have ended on Feb. 7, 2025)," Zamora said in a press conference.

Only if the Senate did so, the Upper Chamber would have had two days to address the impeachment complaint transmitted by the House of Representatives on the same day.

Gutierrez agreed with Zamora. He said "in addition to what Cong. Pammy said, on that layer, sa legislative pa lang mukhang may oras pa pala (in the legislative, there is still time)."

He also argued that impeachment is a constituent power that is not strictly bound by legislative rules, so it could not follow the legislative calendar.

Enough evidence

Meanwhile, Gutierrez is confident that the prosecutors have "more than enough evidence" to convict Duterte.

But he believed that "there would still be more avenues for additional evidence" as like any other prosecutors in a case, they want to have "stronger evidence".

His statement came as critics questioned why prosecutors still need to subpoena Duterte's bank records if they were confident about their case about her supposed ill-gotten wealth.

"Kung sa criminal court nga po naghahanda ang prosecutor (If in criminal court, prosecutors are preparing) for guilt evidence that would prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt, I think we should still have the diligence po no sa prosecution team to prepare for such quantum of evidence," he said.

"This is also venue po no para malaman na po yung katotohanan (for us to know the truth). Kasi (Because) that has been a constant call po even in the House," he added.