Vice President Sara Duterte (PPAB)

The 11-member House prosecution team has started holding "mock trials" in preparation for Vice President Sara Duterte's Senate impeachment trial at the beginning of the 20th Congress.

This was bared by impeachment prosecutor San Juan lone district Rep. Ysabel Maria Zamora recently shared to House reporters.

“We've been having meetings, discussions, interviews, we also had a mock trial. So we've been practicing in case the trial happens anytime soon," said Zamora, an assistant majority leader in the House of Representatives.

Vice President Duterte's impeachment trial is expected to begin after President Marcos' State of the Nation Address (SONA) this coming July. This will have been five full months after the House of Representatives transmitted the impeachment complaint along with the seven articles of impeachment to the upper chamber.  

Of the seven articles of impeachment, there has been great belief among the solon-prosecutors that article 1 was strong enough to easily get a conviction. This was the alleged "Conspiracy to assassinate President Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and Speaker Martin Romualdez" on the part of the Vice President.

In this regard--and to giving an idea of the prosecution team's confidence--Zamora says there is no need to get the testimonies of Vice President, the President, the First Lady, and the House Speaker. 

“We don't need the Vice President to be our witness. I think the evidence we have is enough. We have testimonial evidence, we have documentary evidence. So sapat na po...sapat na po yung evidence sa namin (So it's enough...we have enough evidence at our disposal)," Zamora said.

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"We have testimonial, we have documentary evidence. And it's the mere fact of saying those things that the Vice President is charged under article one," said the San Juan solon.

"Hindi po natin kailangan na mag-witness ang Presidente, ang First Lady, ang House Speaker para ho mapatunayan na nagkasala ang Vice President under article 1 (We don't need to call the President, the First Lady, the House Speaker as witnesses to prove the Vice President's guilt under article 1)," undered Zamora.

The six other articles of impeachment are as follows:

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.