Vice President Sara Duterte (Facebook)

While Vice President Sara Duterte is busy tending to the legal needs of her jailed father in the Netherlands, the House prosecution team in her impeachment case is beginning to discuss the nitty-gritty of the articles of impeachment.

This was bared by Batangas 2nd district Rep. Gerville "Jinky Bitrics" Luistro in an interview Wednesday, March 26 as she shared a pre-trail strategy of the 11-member prosecution panel.

"The prosecution team have converted into smaller groups already. Our approach is preparation per article already. So, we were grouped as to which articles we are assigned [to]," said Luistro, one of the lawyer-legislators tasked to get a guilty verdict from Vice President Duterte in the upcoming Senate impeachment trial. 

The seven articles of impeachment against Vice Duterte, as indicated in the impeachment complaint, are as follows:

Article 1: Conspiracy to assassinate President Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and Speaker Martin Romualdez; 

Article 2: Malversation of P612.5 million in confidential funds;

Article 3: Bribery and corruption in Department of Education (DepEd);

Article 4: Unexplained wealth and failure to disclose assets; 

Article 5: Involvement in extrajudicial killings (EJK);

Article 6: Destabilization, insurrection, and public disorder; and

Article 7: The totality of respondent's conduct as Vice President.

"I think I have said this before [that] we are being asked kung sang article ba kami comfortable na mag prosecute (which articles are we comfortable to prosecute on) and then our team has divided already into the number of articles and which articles we are assigned," Luistro said. 

"In other words, we seldom or we rarely meet as a team. Instead, we meet by article team," said the neophyte solon, who had been noticed for her surgical interpellations during House quad-comm hearings. 

The Vice President is acting as the spokesperson of her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, who is currently incarcerated at the International Criminal Court at The Hague in the Netherlands for crimes against humanity. 

Her impeachment trial at the Senate is expected to begin after President Marcos' State of the Nation Address (SONA) in July.

Congress (the House of Representatives and Senate) is currently on recess, with most of the politicians gearing up for the May 12 mid-term elections.

Another House prosecutor, Iloilo 3rd district Rep. Lorenz Defensor, insisted that the legislative break and campaign season cannot take precedence over the threat made against the President, while is the charge indicated in article 1.

“There is a threat, a direct threat, at the life of a sitting president by an incumbent vice president,” Defensor said in a separate interview Wednesday.

“I don’t see how it can be overruled by a break or it can be overruled by a campaign. When the Constitution says the trial shall forthwith proceed, that’s clear enough,” said the House deputy majority leader.

Defensor emphasized that the threat to the President’s life warrants urgent action and should override political or institutional delays.

“We have to remember that time is of the essence in this impeachment process because of the articles of impeachment and the accusations under the articles of impeachment. Actually, even the Senate rules acknowledge that the trial shall forthwith proceed,” Defensor noted.