The upcoming Senate impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte is a tough and tedious job for the 11-member House prosecution panel; but right now, they can't help but laugh at the fuzzy throwback feels that the task is giving them.

Just ask lead prosecutor Batangas 2nd district Rep. Gerville “Jinky Bitrics” Luistro, who likened the team's preparations to studying for the Bar examinations all over again.

“As a matter of fact ang aking analogy para kaming bumalik sa Bar exam (my analogy is like we want back to taking up the Bar exam)” Luistro, a lawyer and chairperson of the House Committee on Justice said in a DZME radio interview.

“All of us are lawyers so medyo familiar naman kaming lahat sa pinagdaanan namin (we're all familiar with what we went through). Natatawa na lang kami on what is happening to us because apparently talagang para kami mga law students na bumalik sa review ng Bar,” Luistro said.

(We laugh over what is happening to us because apparently we're really like law students who went back to reviewing for the Bar.)

Aside from Luistro, the prosecution team is composed of Reps. Terry Ridon (Bicol Saro Party-list), Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez (1-Rider Party-list), Ysabel Maria Zamora (San Juan City lone district), Lorenz Defensor (Iloilo 3rd district), Jose Manuel “Chel” Diokno (Akbayan Party-list), Leila de Lima (Mamamayang Liberal Party-list), Kaka Bag-ao (Dinagat Islands lone district), Jonathan Keith Flores (Bukidnon 2nd district), Lordan Suan (Cagayan de Oro 1st district), and Joel Chua (Manila 3rd district).

On Wednesday, the group of solons organized a "prosecutors learning from prosecutors" session wherein Diokno--perhaps the one who most recently handled a court case among the team--facilitated discussions on rules of procedure and evidence.

"We are even reviewing our rules on evidence because most of us ay limited lang ang naging experience sa practice (most of us have limited experience when it comes to practicing law),” Luistro said.

The 11-member House prosecution panel was formally constituted by the House of Representatives after the chamber overwhelmingly voted to impeach Duterte for the second time in two years and transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate impeachment court.

Luistro earlier announced that members of the prosecution panel had already been assigned specific articles of impeachment and areas of responsibility ahead of the Senate trial.

Vice President Duterte's conviction via impeachment trial is being sought over her offices' alleged misuse of P612.5 million worth of confidential funds; untruthful declarations in the filing of her statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth; unexplained wealth; and death threats to President Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former House Speaker Leyte 1st district Rep. Martin Romualdez.

“We are finalizing of course the list of our witnesses per article. We are finalizing the list of documents to be presented per article,” Luistro said.

“‘Pag sinabi nating documents it does not pertain to paper only. It includes even videos and we are also finalizing the nature of the direct examination na dapat naming gawin in order to establish our case per witness per article,” she noted.

(When we say documents, it does not pertain only to paper. It also includes videos, and we are finalizing the nature of the direct examination we need to conduct in order to establish our case per witness per article.)

The Batangas solon has stressed that impeachment proceedings are not intended to be treated as purely technical legal exercises, noting that the Constitution deliberately vested the power of impeachment in Congress instead of the judiciary.

“Ito ay purposely ginawang liberal (This was purposely made liberal) because of the importance of the subject matter of the impeachment proceedings,” Luistro said. “Of course, the importance of it is we are trying to test the fitness of the highest official of the land.”

“Ang sabi ko nga in one of my opening statements if indeed the intention of the framers of the Constitutions is to make it purely legal, sana binigay nalang sa judiciary, pero hindi,” she added.

(As I said in one of my opening statements, if indeed the framers of the Constitution intended this to be purely legal, they should have given it to the judiciary. But they did not.)

"Ibinigay ito sa lehislatura (They gave it to the legislature), and in our case we are the representatives of the people because the intention really is to make it liberal so as to ferret out the truth,” Luistro said.