Akbayan Party-list Rep. Chel Diokno is prodding the House Committee on Justice to assume custody of detained witness Ramil Madriaga as a way to ensure his safety and availability to testify in the impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte.

Diokno, a lawyer, made the request in a March 5 letter addressed to Committee on Justice Chairperson Batangas 2nd district Rep. Gerville “Jinky Bitrics” Luistro.

This was right after the justice committee found both the Joel Saballa et al., complaint and the Nathaniel Cabrera complaint “sufficient in form and substance".

In a motion within the letter, Diokno asked the panel to take custody of Madriaga, who has been identified as a material witness to the impeachment case.

An alleged former inteligence officer of the Duterte administration, Madriaga is currently detained at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig City.

“May I also move that the custody of Mr. Ramil Lagunoy Madriaga, who appears to be a material witness in the impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Z. Duterte, be transferred to the Committee on Justice, to ensure his safety and availability to testify before the Committee at the proper time,” Diokno wrote.

Madriaga’s testimony is considered "new" evidence against Vice President Duterte, who was was also the subject of impeachment proceedings last year under the previous 19th Congress.

In the same letter, the Akbayan solon urged the committee to immediately compel the production of key records he said are necessary “to fulfill its mandate of evaluating the evidence in order to decide if sufficient grounds for impeachment exist".

“To achieve this mandate and facilitate the proceedings, I respectfully move that subpoenae duces tecum be issued as follows,” Diokno said.

Among the first documents sought are duly certified true copies of Duterte’s statements of assets, liabilities and net worth, with Diokno asking the Office of the Ombudsman to provide SALNs for the years 2022 to 2025, 2007 to 2013, and 2016 to 2022, for the committee “to be apprised of the assets, liabilities and net worth declared” by the Vice President “from the time she first entered public service until the present".

Diokno also asked the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) to submit a certification under oath on whether it has any records involving covered and or suspicious transactions linked to Duterte, including accounts in her name, accounts in the name of spouses Sara Zimmerman Duterte and Manases “Mans” Reyes Carpio, accounts in the name of Duterte and Rodrigo Roa Duterte, and other related accounts, for the committee to evaluate whether she acquired ill-gotten or unexplained wealth and or failed to declare assets in her SALNs during the relevant period.

He likewise sought records from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on its investigation into threats attributed to Duterte against President Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez, including certified copies of documents and photographs gathered in the course of the investigation.

The motions were seconded by Mamamayang Liberal (ML) Party-list Reps. Leila de Lima, Akbayan Party-list Rep. Perci Cendaña, and Dinagat Island lone district Rep. Kaka Bag-ao, as indicated in the letter.

The committee is expected to take up the requests next week as it proceeds with preparations for the evidentiary phase of the impeachment proceedings, including the issuance of compulsory processes needed to secure official records and ensure the presence of material witnesses.

A total of four impeachment complaints were lodged against the Vice President this year.